Exams as Learning Tools: A Comparison of Traditional and Collaborative Assessment in Higher Education

Exams are increasingly being used as learning tools in the form of collaborative assessments as opposed to their traditional use as a summative assessment tool for verifying individual student learning. Despite the growing popularity of collaborative assessments, few studies test the differential effects of collaborative assessments (versus traditional assessments) on student learning. This paper analyzes 16 empirical studies from various disciplines and investigates the extent to which collaborative assessments improve student learning. The paper further provides recommendations and improved practices for instructors interested in using collaborative assessment in their classroom.