The Murders at York Close (an alternative assessment post-ChatGPT)

Synopsis

This presentation is about the alternative assessment for COSC250 Functional and Reactive Programming in Trimester 1 2023. It’s a hybrid between an assignment and an exam, featuring a little programming game, The Murders at York Close, inspired by murder mystery games like Cluedo and Among Us.
As we all know, generative AI had a significant impact on assessment plans in 2022 and 2023. Something that can be particularly awkward is what to do about the “alternative assessment” to a proctored exam. A lower-weighted exam might be proctored so that you can include some understanding-style questions (that generative AI can answer)… but then a third of your students get approved for an unproctored alternative that you need to set. Alternative assessments inherit the weightings, learning outcomes, and role within the unit of the exam. Students face the end-of-trimester time pressure of a short examination and marking period, but in potentially a very different format. And although 30% is small for an exam, it’s as big as the biggest assignment in the unit, so an alternative has to look respectable compared to the other assignments too. This presentation describes an alternative assessment task that combines randomised questions, video questions, upload questions, and a programmable game to try to produce something playful that can serve the constraints mentioned above.

Uplift Element

Engaging Assessments