Designing Divergent Thinking, Creative Problem Solving Exams

This experience report paper reports on case studies of final exams that used creative problem solving to assess students’ ability to apply the material, and divergent thinking to ensure that each student’s exam was unique. We report on two senior-level software engineering courses, taught a total of six times across three semesters. The paper gives enough information for readers to adapt this method in their own courses. Our exams include built-in divergence properties, which are elements or decisions that lead students to more than one good answer. Based on our experience, divergent thinking, creative problem solving exams not only provide excellent assessments of student knowledge, but ensure the integrity of the exam process, even when students work without supervision. We developed this strategy during the pandemic when all courses were online, but find them to be better than our traditional exams and are now using this strategy for in-person courses.