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On-line auto-graded assignments in economics: A test of their effectiveness

On-line auto-graded assignments in economics: A test of their effectiveness. Brendan Kennelly 1 , John Considine 2 and Darragh Flannery 1 1 Department of Economics, NUI Galway 2 Department of Economics, UCC. Structure of Presentation. Background Experiment Descriptive statistics

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On-line auto-graded assignments in economics: A test of their effectiveness

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  1. On-line auto-graded assignments in economics: A test of their effectiveness Brendan Kennelly1, John Considine2 and Darragh Flannery1 1Department of Economics, NUI Galway 2Department of Economics, UCC

  2. Structure of Presentation • Background • Experiment • Descriptive statistics • Econometric analysis • Discussion

  3. Background: What is Aplia? • Designed by Paul Romer in 2000 • Course management tool • Facilitates learning and assessment • Using diagrams • Practice Assignment • Instant Feedback Qy Qx Income doubles for this consumer. Place new budget constraint on diagram.

  4. Background: Previous Work • Technology • Teaching/Learning • Cost to Instructor • Aplia • Collins et al (2008) • O’Dea and Ring (2008) • Aplia in Nat. Univ. of Ireland, Galway • Kennelly and Duffy (DEE 2007) • All Assignments on Aplia • Evaluated By Student Survey

  5. A New ‘Experiment’ Brendan Kennelly and David Duffy. 2007. Poster Presentation to Developments in Economic Education Conference. Evaluating the Use of Aplia as a Substitute to Alternative First Year Tutorials Using Student Survey Darragh Flannery (econometrics) and John Considine (student opinion) replace David Duffy Aplia being used as a complement to tutorials for Second Year students Evaluate by Student Survey and Focus Groups Evaluate by examining grade outcomes

  6. A New ‘Experiment’ • 390 students took managerial economics • Analysis mainly about 254 Commerce Students • 10 assignments; all did 1 and 2 on Aplia • Thereafter ¼ did a paper assignment instead of Aplia • Exam in 8 sections corresponding to the last 8 assignments • Students had to do 6 sections in the exam

  7. 25% Assignment grade based on best 8 out of 10 Group 1 Ai Aii A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 Group 2 Ai Aii A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 Group 3 Ai Aii A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A8 Ai Aii A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 Group 4 Exam Question Q1 Q2 Q3 Q8 75% Examination grade based on 6 question out of 8

  8. Summary Statistics

  9. Descriptive Statistics • Table 2: completion rate was lower for the written assignments than for the Aplia ones. • Table 3: no consistent pattern in the marks across assignment format (Aplia or written) • Table 4: no consistent pattern in the average mark per examination section by each group • Table 5: average mark varied considerably across exam section

  10. Table 2: Percentage of Group Completing Assignment

  11. Econometric analysis: overall exam performance

  12. Overall exam performance • The results are in line with expectations. We replaced overall assignment mark with a variable that measured the number of assignments attempted. This variable is also significant and has a very large coefficient. However there is relatively little variation in this variable.

  13. Econometric analysis: section specific regressions

  14. Econometric analysis: section specific regressions

  15. Section specific regressions • Aplia/paper dummy is statistically significant only in Section 2. In that case students who did the assignment by Aplia performed somewhat better in that section of the exam. • The number of marks that a student received in an assignment is statistically significant with a positive sign in the regressions on Section 3 and Section 8 and is weakly significant in the regression on Section 1.

  16. Panel analysis • The variation across students and across sections in our dependent variable meant that our data could be analysed using panel data techniques • Pooled data • Fixed effects • Random effects

  17. Econometric analysis: Pooled Data

  18. Econometric analysis: fixed effects

  19. Econometric analysis: Random Effects

  20. Discussion: Results • Very little evidence that Aplia v Written format of the assignment matters • Little evidence of a direct link between performance in an assignment and mark on the corresponding section in the exam. • If there is no difference in learning outcome then • Cost (student & instructor) becomes important • Students’ preferences become important

  21. Discussion: Issues • Where might learning from Aplia take place? • Between practice assignment and actual assignments? • Incrementally so that ALL students do a better examination – all have used Aplia 6 times? • Does the examination test learning from Aplia? • Is the experiment testing the benefits of technology and/or assignments rather than Aplia? • Is there cheating and/or cooperative learning?

  22. Discussion: Future Work • More analysis of existing data • Including two stage estimation • Change Experiment • Do not allow practice assignments for some of 2009-10 assignments • Compare with other 2009-10 assignments • Compare with exact same 2008-9 assignment • Is Aplia fit-for-purpose? • What purpose?

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