Physics exam in distance learning in the context of formative and summative assessment

In Slovakia, the school year 2020/2021 began in the classrooms. This changed in the last week of October, when lower secondary school pupils switched to distance learning, as part of the government’s response to the second wave of COVID-19. In an online setting we verified the knowledge and skills of pupils in the 8th grade through an exam covering the topics of force and torque. We use inquiry-based instruction and thus we consider it appropriate to verify not only pupils’ theoretical knowledge but also their practical skills acquired during Physics lessons and how they put these skills to use when solving a problem. As part of the exam, the pupils therefore had to individually perform an experiment and use the data measured in the experiment to answer a series of questions. Additionally, pupils had to record videos where they described the course of their experiments and presented their results. The completed exam, the video presentation and an online session to discuss the exam with each pupil were used to assess the pupil’s performance. Here we give an analysis of our approach to the grading of the exams with respect to formative and summative assessment. Since the shift to distance learning, there has been a lot of discussion on online cheating. We therefore also examine cheating in the light of the type of assessment used in this work.