Use of Web‐based formative assessment to support student learning in a metabolism/nutrition unit

Abstract

In 2002, an integrated basic science course was introduced into the Bachelor of Dental Sciences programme at the University of Queensland, Australia. Learning activities for the Metabolism and Nutrition unit within this integrated course included lectures, problem-based learning tutorials, computer-based self-directed learning exercises and practicals. To support student learning and assist students to develop the skills necessary to become lifelong learners, an extensive bank of formative assessment questions was set up using the commercially available package, WebCT. Questions included short-answer, multiple-choice and extended matching questions. As significant staff time was involved in setting up the question database, the extent to which students used the formative assessment and their perceptions of its usefulness to their learning were evaluated to determine whether formative assessment should be extended to other units within the course. More than 90% of the class completed formative assessment tasks associated with learning activities scheduled in the first two weeks of the block, but this declined to less than 50% by the fourth and final week of the block. Patterns of usage of the formative assessment were also compared in students who scored in the top 10% for all assessment for the semester with those who scored in the lowest 10%. High-performing students accessed the Web-based formative assessment about twice as often as those who scored in the lowest band. However, marks for the formative assessment tests did not differ significantly between the two groups. In a questionnaire that was administered at the completion of the block, students rated the formative assessment highly, with 80% regarding it as being helpful for their learning. In conclusion, although substantial staff time was required to set up the question database, this appeared to be justified by the positive responses of the students.

Comparing Online and Offline Administration of Multiple Choice Question Assessments to Psychology Undergraduates: Do Assessment Modality or Computer Attitudes Influence Performance?

“…This may at best mean substantial time investment by tutors and/or technical support staff, and at worst might preclude the use of online assessments due to a lack of available resources. Though implementation packages such as WebCT exist, these are costly, and not always straightforward to learn how to use (Henley, 2003).…”

“…As part of a general move towards increasing the role of IT and web based methods in higher education (HE) teaching and learning, practitioners have started to make use of online assessments in both formative (e.g., Buchanan, 2000;Henley, 2003) and summative (e.g., Ricketts and Wilks, 2002) assessment contexts, across a range of disciplines. We use the term "online" throughout this paper to refer to assessments which have been made available via a computer network (e.g., the world wide web), for access from a range of locations at the respondent's convenience.…”

A Review of Tools and Techniques for Data-Enabled Formative Assessment

“…Performance data was in the form of percentages correct, as well as counts of different types of errors (spelling, verb inflection, and word order). The use of these types of simple queries to process and present data is common in many instructional systems that keep a log of student assessments and other activities (Buchanan, 1998;Feng et al, 2009;Henly, 2003;May et al, 2011;McNely et al, 2012;Papamitsiou & Economides, 2015;Wang, 2008). In order to identify commonly queried topics in a museum environment, Nelson et al (2017) used simple counts that were then fed to a dashboard.…”

“…Cassady, Budenz-Anders, Pavlechko, and Mock (2001) used Quiz Editor JS, an online assessment tool that easily creates objectively scored assessments that provide formative feedback. Additional examples of machine graded data in formative assessment can be seen in Henly (2003), Lin and Lai (2014), Wang (2008), and Alemán, Palmer-Brown, and Jayne (2011).…”

“…The system knows whether or not a student got a question wrong, but it does not know the reason. The use of quick feedback following objectively scored assessment was also utilized by Henly (2003) and Wang (2008).…”