First Year Seminar

FYS Common Exam Info for Instructors

FYS Exam info

Where is the exam?

The FYS Common Exam is set up in the same way as it was in fall and spring 2019 (for those of you who taught then).  For those of you who didn’t teach last year or others who just need a little refresher – rather than the exam being set up as a TEST in Blackboard, it is set as an ASSIGNMENT (even though we still consider and call it a test, which is given at the end of the semester).

So, this just means that students will open and complete the exam, which still contains Parts A (evaluating seven documents for credibility and relevance), B (considering what other information would have been useful and how one might find it)  and C (the recommendation with justification), using a Microsoft Word document, which they should save often and one last time before attaching and submitting it to the FYS Common Exam Assignment in Blackboard.

Here is the what is slightly different – rather than loading that Microsoft Word document (actually, there are four different ones for four different scenarios – those given on Monday, another scenario for Tuesday, etc.) into your Blackboard course shell at the beginning of the semester, students will be directed via a link in the Blackboard assignment to a website with all the information they need, including the FYS Common Exam Microsoft Word document template.

So, it’s the same test, same format.  The only difference is that ACCESS to the exam, exam scenarios and related documents will be available via a website (https://www.marshall.edu/fys/first-year-seminar/final-exams/) which is linked in the FYS Common Exam assignment in Blackboard for students.

If you have any questions, please contact April Fugett (fugett5@marshall.edu or 304-696-5268)

Grading Rubrics

Zip file of a rubric you can import into Blackboard and then add it to the Final Exam for grading

Who is on call if I need assistance?

April Fugett (fugett5@marshall.edu | 304-696-5268)

Previous Semesters – Information

Fall 2018 FYS Exam Troubleshooting

Grading Resources

Barbara Tarter grading approach

Sias FYS Final Exam Grading Rubric 12 18

Zip file of a rubric you can import into Blackboard and then add it to the Final Exam for grading

Rubric for FYS Final Exam

Browsers

  • Recommended browsers:  Google Chrome or Firefox

Issues with links?

  • If clicking on links proves problematic, then copy and paste the URLs of each of the seven documents into the browser.

FYS Summer 2016 Workgroup – what we did

  1. Made some revisions to exam instructions to make them more straightforward. READ FIRST REVISED Revision of Parts B and C
  2. Updated four existing exam scenarios to make them more relevant (in some cases replaced dated articles and documents with more timely ones and in others rewrote the scenario to reflect the times in which we live)
  3. Created six new final exam scenarios, which will go into the rotation of exams.  Two of the six new ones will debut this fall, two next spring, etc.
  4. “Retired” one FYS exam scenario so that faculty could use as a teaching tool, if they wish, in class much as they do with the Banned Books Scenario and Apple scenarios.  The retired exam that is now available for use is The Governor’s Budget Analysis.

The FYS Final Exam transitioned from the paper format to MUOnline in fall 2014.

Learn more about the process

VIDEOS

  • How to Edit the Test Options (to make sure the test opens and closes at the time set by the Registrar for your final exam – Jennifer had to use the generic opening and closing times  [8 am and evening] when setting up exams for 44 sections.  Please update the opening and closing time to fit the exam time set for your class by the Registrar.

Contact

April Fugett, Ph.D.
  Executive Director
  Center for Teaching and Learning
fugett5@marshall.edu
Old Main 109
304-696-5268

Center for Teaching and Learning
CTL@marshall.edu
Old Main 109
304-696-2206