HLST Network 4th Annual Conference

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HLST Network 4th Annual Conference

• E-assessment
• Nicola Bryan (SPRInTA Project)

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• Overview of the SPRInTA Project.
• Formative/Summative pilot study.
• Breakout groups-pros/cons e-assessment.
• SPRInTAs findings.

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OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT

• Student Portal Resources for Innovative Targeted
  Assessment.
• FDTL-5.
• November 2004 October 2006.
• Nicola Bryan (Project Officer).
• Ben Steeples (Technical Officer).

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WHAT IS SPRInTA?

• SPRInTA aims to address concerns about the
  support available to students on assessment and
  the provision of effective feedback.
• The aim of the project is to support student
  achievement by providing targeted and
  personalised support for assessment.
• On completion of the Project students on at least
  15 Sports Science/Biological Science courses will
  be able to access a suite of online self
  assessment exercises to improve their
  understanding of assessment and of course
  content.
• All of these resources will be linked through the
  myEssex student portal.

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SO, HOW IS SPRInTA GOING TO DO THIS?

• SPRInTA will design and develop online
  self-assessment for five types of assessment
  common to Sports Science students
• Multiple Choice Questions.
• Short answer and essay style practice
  examinations.
• Data Analysis Interpretation.
• Practical Coursework (worksheets).
• Reporting in Scientific Paper Format.

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FORMATIVE/SUMMATIVE PILOT STUDY

• Pilot module Human Physiology (BS155).
• 600 Formative Multiple Choice Questions
  (MCQs)-using QMP, linked into the portal.
• Split course materials into 4 sub modules-last
  teaching day.
• Tiered difficulty of questions.
• Summative Exam Online.
• Incentive-Summative Exam Questions from Formative
  Question Bank.
• Practice (mixed subtopic) exams 1 week before
  final exam.

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YOUR TURN!!

• Ok, before I tell you the results from the pilot,
  quickly write down
• What of students used the resource?
• How many formative assessments on average did
  each student completed?
• What was the distribution of completed
  assessments over the 8 week period?
• Impact on summative results?!!

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What of students used the resource?

• 92.5 of students used the resource.

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How many formative assessments on average did
each student completed?

• Average- 45.5 48.6 completed assessments per
  student.

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What was the distribution of completed
assessments over the 8 week period?
Fig 1 Number of formative assessments completed
per week for the formative assessments
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Fig 2 Number of completed assessments by hour in
the twenty-four hours leading up to the summative
exam.
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Impact on summative results?

• BS155 Average Summative Exam Result
• 2004 46.5 15.5
• 2005 71 19.7
• The 2005 results were significantly higher than
  the 2004 results (plt0.001 t-test).

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NEXT TASK!!!!

• After the BS155 pilot we surveyed the staff and
  students.
• Please spilt into groups of four and discuss
  e-assessment in terms of
• Group 1Pros from a student view.
• Group 2 Pros from a staff view.
• Group 3 Cons from a student view.
• Group 4 Cons from a staff view.
• Pros and cons group need to switch over after
  10 minutes.

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E-assessment Pros from a Student View

• Helps to spread study time evenly.
• Helps to prepare for the final exam.
• Immediate/quicker feedback.
• Formative/summative in the same format.
• Helps to break revision into manageable amounts .
• Enables the student to concentrate on weak areas.
• Can access the assessment at anytime/anywhere.
• Can self assess how they are getting on.
• Most coursework is done online so why not
  revision/assessment?
• Feels less exam like.
• Makes assessment interesting!!!

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E-assessment Cons from a Student View

• Students try and memorize formative assessment
  (learn in parrot fashion).
• Couldnt access when the network was down.
• Feels impersonal.
• Needed to find an available computer.
• Find it harder to read from a computer screen
  (can only concentrate for 20 minutes at a time).
• Technophobia!!!

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E-assessment Pros from a Staff View

• No marking!!!
• Feedback is quicker and always given to the
  students.
• Turn around time of summative results is quicker.
• Reduces the paper mountain!!!
• Allows you to manage the questions.
• Students perceive it to be less threatening than
  typical book/paper format.
• Can track the students practice results and
  identify weak students.
• Generic and individual feedback can be more
  easily generated.
• Less student queries.

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E-assessment Cons from a Staff View

• Plagiarism.
• More accessibility issues.
• Cant show working (in particular maths).
• More preparation time initially.
• Have to learn new software.
• Unfamiliar.
• Technophobia.
• No flexibility/individuality to the marking.

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Questions?
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Contact

• E-mail sprinta_at_essex.ac.uk
• Telephone [phone]
• Web http//www.essex.ac.uk/sprinta