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Centre for Open Learning of Mathematics, Science Computing and Technology (COLMSCT)

E-assessment for learning? Short-answer free-text questions with tailored feedback Sally Jordan ENAC Potsdam August 2008. Centre for Open Learning of Mathematics, Science Computing and Technology (COLMSCT). The UK Open University. Supported distance learning;

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Centre for Open Learning of Mathematics, Science Computing and Technology (COLMSCT)

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  1. E-assessment for learning?Short-answer free-text questions with tailored feedbackSally Jordan ENAC Potsdam August 2008 Centre for Open Learning of Mathematics, Science Computing and Technology (COLMSCT)

  2. The UK Open University • Supported distance learning; • 150,000 students, mostly studying part-time; • Undergraduate courses are completely open entry, so students have a wide range of previous qualifications; • Normal age range from 18 to ?? • 10,000 of our students have declared a disability of some sort; • 25,000 of our students live outside the UK.

  3. Implications for assessment • Within the Open University context, learners are geographically separated and we cannot assume that they will meet their tutor in order to receive feedback. • We are seeking to provide students with feedback on assessment tasks which is personalised and received in time to be used in future learning. • We are using small regular assessment tasks to help students to pace their study. • We are also using assessment tasks to encourage students to reflect on their learning and to enter into informed discussion with their tutor. • So perhaps e-assessment can offer benefits for learning…?

  4. The OpenMark system • Uses a range of question types, going far beyond what is possible with multiple choice; • Question types include: numerical input, text input, drag and drop, hotspot; • Students are allowed three attempts with an increasing amount of teaching guidance, wherever possible tailored to the student’s previous incorrect answer; • Different students receive variants of each question so each has a unique assignment. • OpenMark has been incorporated into Moodle, the open source virtual learning environment being used by the Open University.

  5. Pushing the boundaries… • We wanted to be able to ask questions requiring free text answers of a phrase or sentence in length; • This requires us to mark many different answers as correct.. • and many different answers as incorrect… • We are working with a commercially provided authoring tool (from Intelligent Assessment Technologies Ltd.); • The system copes well with poor spelling and, usually, with poor grammar; • It can handle answers in which word order is significant and it accurately marks negated forms of a correct answer.

  6. Novel features • The IAT questions sit within OpenMark and students are offered three attempts with increasing feedback; • We provide tailored feedback on both incorrect and incomplete responses; • We write the answer matching ourselves using a template-based authoring tool; • We use student responses to developmental versions of the questions, themselves delivered online, to improve the answer matching.

  7. Evaluation 1:User lab observations • Six students were observed in June 2007; • They reacted to the questions in interesting ways; most gave their answers as phrases or in note form, even when it had been suggested that answers should be given as a complete sentence. Why? • One student said ‘I’m going to give my answers in the same way as I would for a tutor marked assignment’ – and he did exactly that, composing his answers carefully as grammatically correct sentences.

  8. Evaluation 1User lab observations cont. • Students’ use of feedback was also variable; • Some students read the feedback carefully, scrolling across the text, nodding, making appropriate comments, referring to the course text; • These students were able to successfully amend their previous answer i.e. to learn from the feedback provided; • But some students didn’t make use of the feedback provided, especially when told that an incorrect answer was correct.

  9. Evaluation 2:Human-computer marking comparison • The computer marking was compared with that of 6 human markers; • For most questions the computer’s marking was indistinguishable from that of the human markers; • For all questions, the computer’s marking was closer to that of the question author than that of some of the human markers; • The computer was not always ‘right’, but neither were the human markers.

  10. Almost final thoughts • The computer’s answer matching is excellent, probably because we have used real student responses to develop it; • This matters even in purely formative use – we want students to receive the correct message; • A few of these questions have been incorporated into summative (low stakes) assessments. Do students trust the computer to mark their work? • So far, we have no evidence that they don’t (they are aware that there is always a human arbitrator);

  11. Final thoughts • Most students are intrigued and impressed by the technology; • A few would prefer multiple choice questions: ‘you know the answer is always there somewhere’; • How useful are e-assessment questions of this type in supporting student learning? • What sort of feedback is most useful to students? • How far is it appropriate to go?

  12. Acknowledgments • The Centre for Open Learning of Mathematics, Science, Computing and Technology (COLMSCT) especially Barbara Brockbank, Phil Butcher and Laura Hills; • Tom Mitchell of Intelligent Assessment Technologies Ltd.

  13. Our demonstration questions are at https://students.open.ac.uk/openmark/omdemo.iat/ Or if you want more… https://students.open.ac.uk/openmark/s103-07b.block3world/ https://students.open.ac.uk/openmark/s103-07b.blocks45world/ https://students.open.ac.uk/openmark/s103-07b.block7world/ https://students.open.ac.uk/openmark/s103-07b.block8world/ https://students.open.ac.uk/openmark/s103-07b.block9world/ https://students.open.ac.uk/openmark/s103-07b.block10world/ https://students.open.ac.uk/openmark/s103-07b.block11world/ For more about OpenMark http://www.open.ac.uk/openmarkexamples/index.shtml For more about Intelligent Assessment Technologies Ltd. http://intelligentassessment.com/

  14. Sally JordanCentre for Open Learning of Mathematics, Science Computing and Technology (COLMSCT) The Open UniversityWalton HallMilton KeynesMK7 6AAs.e.jordan@open.ac.uk http://www.open.ac.uk/colmsct/projects/sallyjordan

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