ABSTRACT
There are different ways of scheduling the evaluations in a course. Partial testing is commonly known as quizzes, evaluations that focus on small parts of the materials. Comprehensive testing, like mid-term and final exams, focuses on the recall of large amounts of course material. How you schedule them depends on your learning goals for the students. Reading an introductory textbook is different from the same amount of time reading a civilization-generating epic. Evaluating that reading must occur at different intervals: more frequently for the textbook, more comprehensively for the epic. Evaluating control over a knowledge base is different from evaluating control over skills. Frequent and repetitive assessment of the student’s control of information establishes a pattern of evaluations. If the students know that the same kinds of material from the weekly quizzes will show up again on the midterm and final comprehensive exams, they put more time into the material. No matter what approach you decide to use, the pattern of evaluation communicates what you consider the most important course outcomes.
