The exam must test the extent to which the students have achieved the academic objectives. The teaching activities must therefore provide the students with an opportunity to practice what will they will be tested in at the exam, and what they will be tested in at the exam must match the academic objectives for the course. In other words, there must be "alignment", i.e. correlation, between the academic objectives for the course, the teaching activities during the course, and the final examination of the extent to which the student has achieved the academic objectives. It is important to consider alignment in the concrete formulation of examination papers, examination questions etc., which must relate to the academic objectives.
Teachers and students tend to view exams in two different ways. The students typically focus on the exam from the beginning of the course, and their expectations regarding exam requirements have an impact on their study choices and priorities from the beginning of the course. The teachers, however, tend to view the exam as a final activity which is more or less disconnected from the teaching itself.
Students adapt their study strategies to the form and requirements of exams. This means that exams and the chosen method of evaluation wash back into teaching activities. It is referred to as the "backwash effect". Teachers must therefore choose teaching activities which are of clear relevance to exam requirements, and which give students an opportunity to meet academic objectives. The backwash effect can lead to both desirable and undesirable study strategies:
Which learning activities may prepare the students for the testing of academic objectives?
How does the concrete method of evaluation correspond to the academic objectives of the course?
How is it possible to make the coherence between academic objectives, scheduled teaching activities and form of examination clear to the students?
Which desirable and undesirable study strategies are encouraged by the form of examination?
Boud, D. (2010). Assessment 2020. Seven propositions for assessment reform in higher education.
Andersen, H. L., Dahl, B., & Tofteskov, J. (2013). Eksamen. In L. Rienecker, P. S. Jørgensen, J. Dolin, & G. H. Ingerslev (Eds.), Universitetspædagogik (1. udgave ed., pp. 369-408). Frederiksberg: Samfundslitteratur.
Andersen, H. L., & Tofteskov, J. (2016). Eksamen og eksamensformer : betydning og bedømmelse (2. udgave ed.).
Keiding, T. B., & Felby, L. C. (2016). Notat om prøveformer.
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