Student Portal Resources for Innovative Targeted Assessment

1
Student Portal Resources for Innovative Targeted
Assessment Nicola Billam, Dr Caroline Angus and
Dr Martin Sellens. Centre for Sport and Exercise
Science, Department of Biological Sciences,
University of Essex

• Progress to Date cont
• Each question bank consists of 300 questions of
  which all questions have been divided into three
  difficulty levels basic, intermediate and
  advanced.
• The questions have also been divided into 8
  weekly releases.
• On the last teaching day of each week the
  questions suitable for the material taught that
  week are released and become available via the
  myStudy section of the student portal.
• All modules that can access the formative SPRInTA
  question banks are summatively assessed online
  (end of module MCQ test, the summer essay based
  exam is still paper based).

• Introduction to the Project
• The SPRInTA Project (Student Portal Resources for
  Innovative Targeted Assessment) is a 22-month
  FDTL5 project that started in November 2004.
• It aims to address the problem that increasing
  student numbers and/or unfavourable staff student
  ratios adversely affect the support available to
  students on assessment and the provision of
  effective and timely feedback.
• The project is based in the Centre for Sports and
  Exercise Science at the University of Essex.
• Project Objectives
• Develop and implement a range of online formative
  and summative assessments and tutorial guidance
  for Sports Science students at different levels
  of study.
• Develop and implement an active student interface
  between a student portal, an individual student
  record and online formative assessment.
• Provide an online formative assessment and
  summative assessment framework which is
  transferable across disciplines and institutions.
• Establish the effect of these interventions on
  student performance and satisfaction.
• Implementing the Project

• Once the student has clicked on the assessment
  that they want they are presented with 10 or more
  questions for that topic. In this case the
  student has selected Endocrinology GIT
  (intermediate). Once the student has answered all
  questions and has submitted the assessment they
  receive feedback for each question.

• How the Portal Works
• When a student logs into the myEssex portal they
  can find the formative questions under the
  myStudy branch of the portal.

• They then get re-directed back into the portal.
  As the student only achieved 30 a more basic set
  of questions has been made available to them.

SPRInTA formative questions
Basic questions have appeared

• The student can then choose the topic that they
  want to use for self-assessment. Depending on
  what week they are in between 1-8 intermediate
  formative assessments will be available. If the
  student has taken previous assessments then
  basic/advanced assessments may be also be
  available.

A previous CVS assessment had been taken (and
failed)

• Student Uptake and Statistics
• So far 85 of students have used the resource.
• On average 26 formative assessments have been
  completed per student.
• There has been a significant improvement in
  summative MCQ exam results from previous year
  (plt0.001 t-test) for modules that have used the
  SPRInTA formative assessments.
• Apart from 1 course, there has been a significant
  positive correlation between the number of
  formative assessments a student has completed and
  their summative MCQ exam score (plt0.05).
• The students have welcomed the formative
  assessments with 94 of students agreeing that
  they are a useful revision tool and 96 of
  students agreeing that all1st year modules should
  have SPRInTA formative assessments.
• The shift to summative online exams has also been
  a success. All students managed to complete each
  online exam and 91 of students agreed that all
  future summative MCQ exams should be online.

• Progress to Date
• At present the SPRInTA Team are currently working
  on the resource section of the project which
  includes online interactive resources for
  examinations, reporting in scientific paper
  format, writing essays and data analysis and
  interpretation
• To date the following has been achieved
• Extensive formative multiple choice question
  (MCQ) banks for level 1 students for the
  following modules
• Biomechanics
• Functional Anatomy
• Nutrition and Metabolism
• Psychology of Sport
• Human Physiology

Contact E-mail sprinta_at_essex.ac.uk Tel 01206
874369 Web http//www.essex.ac.uk/sprinta/