Active learning through flexible collaborative exams: Improving assessments across disciplines

Two-stage exams, which pair a traditional individual exam with a subsequent collaborative exam, are widely popular with both students and faculty for fostering deep engagement, collaboration, and immediate feedback. Over the last decade, this assessment model has gained substantial traction in STEM college courses; however, holding both stages during class sessions often limits the full potential of two-stage exams, deterring many instructors from adopting them. To accommodate these constraints, instructors must either reduce the exam’s content depth and coverage, or hold evening, in-person exam sessions at fixed times, which can often be impractical for students and faculty with external commitments. In this paper, we introduce an alternative asynchronous approach that allows the collaborative portion to be completed unsupervised and outside of regular class hours, within 48 hr of the individual exam. This method not only eases logistical constraints but also allows more time for collaboration, potentially enhancing feedback quality. Our findings show that students equate their engagement, collaboration, and feedback quality during the asynchronous collaborative exam with that of standard in-class exams and show signs of retention of learning. This cost-effective approach requires no extra time or resources and could promote widespread adoption of this effective assessment method, especially in online-only and general STEM courses.