variety in assignment and assessment methods

Tests/Exams alone can not fully assess a students wide range of abilities.
There are several good reasons to consider offering a variety of assessment methods, beyond the typical quiz/test/exam:

1. Students need to understand concepts deeply, as opposed to memorizing information and reproduce it on an exam, so they can handle advanced course work and later work effectively in their chosen field.
2. Students need to be able to apply knowledge in authentic learning and assessment activities to develop the skills necessary for work in their chosen field.
3. Students have diverse abilities, backgrounds, interests, and learning styles, so assessment variety puts all students on a more level playing field in terms of demonstrating what they know and can do.

This statement is typical: “In addition to knowledge and technical proficiency in core content areas, … students need well-developed oral and written communication skills, need to be able to work well in interdisciplinary teams (either as leaders or team members), need “people/soft” skills to successfully interact with a diverse set of partners, and need a well-developed appreciation of work ethics” 
To develop these types of abilities, students need to engage in authentic learning assessment activities. Authentic assessments:

• Require application of knowledge and skills in a “real world” context (realistic, even if it’s in an artificial learning environment, the classroom).
• Involve unstructured, complex problems that may have multiple solutions. Such problems contain both relevant and irrelevant factors, unlabelled, just like real life, and students need to decide what’s relevant and to develop a solution they can explain and defend.
• Require students to “perform” discipline-specific activities or procedures, drawing on a wide range of knowledge and skills.
• Provide feedback, practice, and opportunities to revise and resubmit solutions (re-do's), so they can refine their skills, rather like an apprenticeship between the instructor/TA experts and students.