Horror Writing Course: Assessment Methods

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Horror Writing Course:
Assessment Methods

In my horror writing course, there are two forms of assessing student learning: quizzes and the final project.

Though the final project is optional, the quizzes are prerequisites, meaning students must complete the quizzes in order to move forward with their course. Moreover, if students wish to earn their certificate of completion, they must complete the final project, which is a short story utilizing specific techniques taught in the course. 

The quizzes include multiple-choice and true/false questions in order to assess reading comprehension and understanding of the lessons. Quizzes can be repeated as many times as needed, and each correct or incorrect answer reveals an explanation to help learners solidify their learning. Since I do not believe in punishing learners for errors or misunderstandings (that is, after all, an integral part of the learning experience and should not be punished), this form of assessment felt like a good approach. 

The final project is a more creative assessment, allowing learners to write a short horror story of their own creation, and assessing only the specific techniques students have used in the story to ensure that they have understood how to utilize these techniques. This allows the grader to be much more objective in their grading approach.

The completion of the Challenges and engagement in Discussions could become forms of assessment, but I decided against that for a range of reasons, and below are a few:

  • It will be difficult over time to find specific learners' comments in specific discussions, which could create an incomplete view of that learners' involvement in the course discussions.
  • I did not want learners to feel obligated to engage in discussions unless they truly want to (to ensure that discussions include more content of substance, motivation and a desire to discuss is, in my opinion, of critical importance, and some people will feel more enthusiastic about some topics instead of others).
  • Some challenges require writing short snippets, excerpts, re-writing certain texts, and so on, and grading these assignments would take a very long time, which means that learners may have to wait for long periods of time before receiving their feedback, and this also may potentially create delays in the delivery of the certification, assuming that they have passed the final project and do not need another attempt.

In short, the assessment methods used in this course were chosen and designed based on various constraints that must be respected, all the while still attempting to provide learners with the most helpful and relevant form of assessment for their learning experience.  


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