Using Two-Stage Exams to Promote Active Learning in Large Classes

Using Two-Stage Exams to Promote Active Learning in Large Classes

For decades now, the call to college teachers has been to rely less on lecture and to draw more on active learning techniques such as discussions, small group brainstorming, and think-pair-shares. Strategies like these fit well within smaller courses. But in an auditorium with a couple of hundred students, how do we encourage participation and community? To meet this challenge, Notre Dame’s Rachel Branco has turned to an assessment approach known as the two-stage exam. It’s worked so well that she has now written a how-to guide to help other instructors incorporate this active learning experience into classes of any size.

Experience the Episode

Presented by Notre Dame Learning

For decades now, the call to college teachers has been to rely less on lecture and to draw more on active learning techniques such as discussions, small group brainstorming, and think-pair-shares.

Strategies like these fit well within smaller courses. But in an auditorium with a couple of hundred students, how do we encourage participation and community?

To meet this challenge, Notre Dame’s Rachel Branco has turned to an assessment approach known as the two-stage exam. It’s worked so well that she has now written a how-to guide to help other instructors incorporate this active learning experience into classes of any size.

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Meet the Speaker: Rachel Bronco

Rachel Branco is a neuroscientist and an associate teaching professor at the University of Notre Dame, where she teaches courses through both the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Neuroscience and Behavior Program. She is passionate about researching and implementing practical classroom strategies that improve how students learn about and experience science.

She is particularly interested in strategies related to assessment, active learning, and classroom management that work at scale in large classes. With a doctoral background in neuroscience, Rachel’s work has examined how environmental chemicals influence the nervous system from biochemistry and behavior. She brings this expertise to her courses Principles of Biochemistry, Molecular Neuroscience, Neuropharmacology, and Environmental Exposures and the Nervous System. Additionally, she oversees summer study abroad programming for the Neuroscience and Behavior major, fostering global perspectives in scientific education.

Key Topics Discussed

  • How Rachel initially encountered the concept of two-stage exams, in which students answer the same set of questions first as individuals and then in groups
  • Her experience incorporating two-stage exams into her smaller courses and why that inspired her not only to adapt the setup for her larger classes but also to write a guide for other instructors interested in doing so
  • Well-established advantages of using two-stage exams as well as Rachel’s own observations of the benefits based on surveys of her students
  • The logistics of deploying two-stage exams in a class with hundreds of students, including the importance of seating plans, the creation of the exam documents themselves, and group construction
  • Why Rachel has each student turn in their own answer sheet for the group part of the exam and the kinds of questions that work best in light of the group dynamic
  • Why it’s critical to communicate the rationale behind this style of assessment to students 

Resources Mentioned

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