Events: Workshops: Matching Assessment to Learning, May 2002: Index page

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The Higher Education Academy

Assessment for a Purpose

Day Workshop, Wednesday 15 May 2002

Resources available | Report (pdf format)

	Measuring Attributes in Statistics (abstract) Peter Holmes, Nottingham Trent University OHP slides from this presentation
	Making the Punishment fit the crime (abstract) Neil Challis, Sheffield Hallam University Summary of this presentation
	Teaching, learning and assessment (abstract) Ros Sutherland, University of Bristol OHP slides from this presentation
	Automatic Assessment of Mathematical Attributes (abstract) Cliff Beevers, Heriot-Watt University Summary of this presentation
	Measuring Higher Order Attributes in Mathematics - when should you leave the CAA behind? (abstract) Michael McCabe, University of Portsmouth Resources relating to this presentation

Abstracts

Measuring attributes in Statistics: Bloom's taxonomy of Cognitive Learning gives six levels of understanding - knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The last three may be more appropriate for undergraduates but it is generally easier to assess the first three. The taxonomy was developed for learning in general, do in this session we shall briefly consider how it might be interpreted and how appropriate it is for Statistics. We shall also look at some aspects of elementary undergraduate statistics courses and see how we can assess different levels of understanding.

Making the punishment fit the crime: a case study in matching assessment to learning outcomes: The designer of an assessment regime must consider many issues. One, for instance, is measuring how well students have learnt what we claim they should, be it knowledge or skill. Another concerns how to motivate and improve students' learning, when they increasingly have other legitimate calls on their time. A third concerns the need for the assessment to be authentic, that is, genuinely the student's own work. A fourth concerns the economics of marking. This talk describes recent experience in Mathematics course design addressing these and other often conflicting issues, at the speaker’s own university.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment.   This presentation will draw on the ESRC research project 'InterActive Education: Teaching and Learning in the Information Age". Within this project we are working in partnership with teachers to examine the ways in which new technologies can be used to enhance learning. This process involves designing learning environments and diagnostic assessment tools to support the learning process. I shall also discuss the potential of ICT for developing new assessment tools and consider the impact that these might have on teaching and learning mathematics.

Automatic Assessment of Mathematical Attributes: Since 1985 the CALM Project for Computer Aided Learning in Mathematics at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh has delivered automatic assessment to large groups of students in engineering and science. Initially, CALM used the computer to assess basic mathematical skills/techniques and acquired facts/knowledge. However, much progress has been made through the design of intermediate steps, the inclusion of hints and the extension of question types. In the SCHOLAR Programme, delivered over the Web to 75% of Scottish secondary schools more complex mathematical skills have been tested automatically using the on-line assessment engine known as CUE. This talk addresses some of the advances in automatic assessment and then explores the capability ofthe computer to assess problem solving skills in Mathematics.

Measuring Higher Order Attributes in Mathematics - When should you leave the CAA behind?: When is it appropriate to use computer assisted assessment (CAA)? Should it only be used for testing lower level skills, e.g. knowledge, or can its use be extended to test higher levels of learning. I will consider two case studies of course units in which CAA has been introduced recently. The first, Mathematics for Computing is formally assessed by a mix of CAA and conventional written exam questions. The second, Multivariable Calculus, includes Mathwise CBL, CAA, written exam questions and a learning diary. How is the right balance of assessment achieved with and without the use of technology?