Video portfolio as an exam option in a database course

Abstract

What happens when we provide database students with a choice of selecting between two different exam types? Do you want to display your skills and knowledge through a traditional three hour school exam, or do you want to display them by creating a video portfolio? This paper describes a specific case where the students at Kristiania University College got that choice. A new video portfolio exam was piloted for three years. The results from the pilot are presented and discussed in relation to related topics such as flexible assessment, Open Educational Resources, portfolio and, most importantly, learning. Portfolio students self-report that they learn more through a portfolio assessment than a traditional school exam, and the exam results indicate the same. But after piloting for three years, only 10% of the students chose portfolio as their final exam. We try to understand why the numbers of portfolio students were so low, and the students’ thoughts behind the exam choice. Video portfolio exam comes with an extra assessment cost and there are challenges in regard to plagiarism. Looking ahead, we try to describe how we may use some of the perceived benefits of using a video portfolio exam into our teaching. How may we be provide students with similar learning activities without risking an increase in plagiarism cases and assessment costs?