Faculty can use collaborative group exams to facilitate peer interactions that enhance learning opportunities and...

Learner-centered pedagogies are recognized as best practices in education. However, when faculty adopt these approaches in daily instruction, most science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses continue to use traditional, high-stakes exams, creating a disconnect if students learn collaboratively but are assessed individually. Collaborative group exams (CGEs) bring the peer interactions of learner-centered instruction to classroom assessments. Prior research has focused on how CGEs influence student learning and content retention, yet relatively less is known about the students' experience during these assessments. In our study, we investigated the students' experience to determine whether the benefits of CGEs transcend individual classroom contexts. This mixed-methods study explores multiple and diverse metrics representing both student opportunities for learning and student experience across 13 different courses in the undergraduate biology curriculum at a medium, comprehensive US primarily undergraduate institution. Our findings show that CGEs facilitate peer interactions leading to consistent opportunities for student learning, while maintaining the integrity of the courses' overall assessment of individual learners. Our data suggest that incorporation of CGEs into course structure is a simple and effective way to improve student outcomes and foster positive classroom culture.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study explores collaborative group exams (CGEs) in undergraduate biology courses as a means of linking collaborative learning pedagogies and individual assessments. We show that CGEs provide opportunities for student learning and may boost classroom culture by fostering peer interaction while not inflating course grades. Therefore, we suggest that CGEs are a simple and scalable pedagogical strategy that all faculty should consider adopting.