scholarly journals Clustering Algorithm to Measure Student Assessment Accuracy: A Double Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Sónia Rolland Sobral ◽  
Catarina Félix de Oliveira

Self-assessment is one of the strategies used in active teaching to engage students in the entire learning process, in the form of self-regulated academic learning. This study aims to assess the possibility of including self-evaluation in the student’s final grade, not just as a self-assessment that allows students to predict the grade obtained but also as something to weigh on the final grade. Two different curricular units are used, both from the first year of graduation, one from the international relations course (N = 29) and the other from the computer science and computer engineering courses (N = 50). Students were asked to self-assess at each of the two evaluation moments of each unit, after submitting their work/test and after knowing the correct answers. This study uses statistical analysis as well as a clustering algorithm (K-means) on the data to try to gain deeper knowledge and visual insights into the data and the patterns among them. It was verified that there are no differences between the obtained grade and the thought grade by gender and age variables, but a direct correlation was found between the thought grade averages and the grade level. The difference is less accentuated at the second moment of evaluation—which suggests that an improvement in the self-assessment skill occurs from the first to the second evaluation moment.

Author(s):  
Denard Lynch

This paper discusses the results of two experiments in self assessment and discusses their value in evaluating student consciousness of their competence, and the opportunity to improve self-awareness and competence in students. The data was gathered from two different engineering courses. The first experiment was conducted in a second-year course on basic electronics and electrical power. As part of the final examination, students were asked to assess their confidence in their answer to each question. The student self-assessment was compared to the actual result in an effort to determine the student’s perception of their competence. Student assessment was coded with respect to consciousness and competence. The second experiment was performed on a midterm examination in engineering ethics and professionalism, a senior course discussing the impact and interaction of the engineering profession on society. Students were given an annotated exemplar and a marking rubric and asked to grade their own midterm submissions. The student assessments were compared to the instructor assessment and again the results were coded with respect to consciousness and competence. The results showed a contrast between the second-year and senior courses. For the second-year course, 50.3% were coded as consciously competent or incompetent. In the senior course, 80% of students were coded as consciously competent. The comparison of the two results suggest that senior students, given suitable instruction, are more aware of their competence than junior students suggesting that current methods do develop an improved awareness of competence, although other factors may be relevant. It is suggested that student awareness be formally monitored, and results used to modify pedagogy to improve and accelerate consciousness in graduates.  


Author(s):  
Prabha Parthasarathy ◽  
Bugewa Apampa ◽  
Andrea Manfrin

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate students’ perception of team-based learning (TBL) amongst a cohort exposed to this methodology for the first time at a university in the United Kingdom.Methods: Between November and December 2018, 26 first-year Master of Pharmacy and 90 second-year Biomedical Science students of the School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, United Kingdom were invited to participate and requested to complete a questionnaire that contained quantitative and qualitative questions. The quantitative component was based on the Team-Based Learning Student Assessment Instrument (TBL-SAI). It additionally contained questions about key student characteristics.Results: The response rate was 60% (70 of 116); of the participants, 74% (n=52) were females and 26% (n=18) males. The percentage of agreement in the TBL-SAI suggested a favourable response to TBL. The overall mean score for the TBL-SAI was 115.6 (standard deviation, 5.6; maximum score, 140), which was above the threshold of 102, thus suggesting a preference for TBL. Statistically significant differences were not found according to demographic characteristics. Students who predicted a final grade of ≥70% strongly agreed that TBL helped improve their grades. Some students highlighted issues with working in teams, and only 56% of students agreed that they could learn better in a team setting.Conclusion: This study shows that students exposed to TBL for the first time favoured several aspects of TBL. However, more focused strategies including team-building activities and expert facilitation skills could potentially tackle resistance to working in teams.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 486-494
Author(s):  
Mark T. Williams ◽  
Lesley J. Lluka ◽  
Jan H. F. Meyer ◽  
Prasad Chunduri

An accurate self-assessment of student work can enhance student learning and subsequently improve academic performance. Instructors can facilitate this process by providing “standards” that students can utilize as feedback when self-evaluating their understanding. Traditional forms of feedback, such as marked assessment tasks, are limited in their ability to serve as standards, as they do not adequately capture variations corresponding to different levels of understanding. To develop a complex understanding in physiology, students have to integrate concepts pertaining to different subcomponents of body systems. The present study attempted to ascertain if exposing students to variations in complexity would refine their ability to self-evaluate their understanding and capacity to integrate concepts. Students were tasked to answer an essay-length, open-ended physiology question to expose their current understanding of the topic. The change in students’ self-marking of their answer before and after being exposed to the variations in conceptual understanding of the topic were used to determine whether improvements in self-evaluation accuracy occurred. These variations were presented as instructor-generated answers to the open-ended question, framed using the structure of the observed learning outcome (SOLO) taxonomy. Student scores in the integrative questions of the end-of-semester exam were used as a measure of student ability to integrate concepts. Findings indicated that this intervention led to improvements in student self-evaluation and exam performance, and the positive outcomes were replicated across multiple iterations of the activity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-52
Author(s):  
Jason Siefken

Tracking the difference between the time a first-year student is allowed to register for a course and the time he or she does register for a course (a student’s registration delay), we notice a negative correlation between registration delay and final grade in a course. The difference between a student who registers within the first two minutes they are allowed to and one who waits three weeks to register is approximately a full GPA point (on a 9 point scale). Registration delay may be a useful factor in helping to identify at-risk students, and should be taken into account as a confounding variable when doing educational studies on multi-section courses.


Author(s):  
Danuse Nezvalova

This paper will build on the findings of a pilot study to investigate the extent to which self- assessment and self-evaluation are implemented to assess science teacher students and to put into practice reformed assessment system. The self-assessment and self-evaluation in science teacher education is s an important aspect of quality in science teacher training. Currently these approaches to assessment have called for more authentic student assessment. Teachers who include authentic assessment in their repertoires are driven by a belief that alternative assessment experiences should prepare students for life in the real world. While teacher-made tests give us information about student learning, they do not provide all the information. Alternate forms of assessment can generate that other information. Key words: science teacher training, self-assessment, self-evaluation, quality of science teacher training.


Author(s):  
Eva Walther ◽  
Claudia Trasselli

Abstract. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that self-evaluation can serve as a source of interpersonal attitudes. In the first study, self-evaluation was manipulated by means of false feedback. A subsequent learning phase demonstrated that the co-occurrence of the self with another individual influenced the evaluation of this previously neutral target. Whereas evaluative self-target similarity increased under conditions of negative self-evaluation, an opposite effect emerged in the positive self-evaluation group. A second study replicated these findings and showed that the difference between positive and negative self-evaluation conditions disappeared when a load manipulation was applied. The implications of self-evaluation for attitude formation processes are discussed.


Author(s):  
Umar Iqbal ◽  
Deena Salem ◽  
David Strong

The objective of this paper is to document the experience of developing and implementing a second-year course in an engineering professional spine that was developed in a first-tier research university and relies on project-based core courses. The main objective of this spine is to develop the students’ cognitive and employability skills that will allow them to stand out from the crowd of other engineering graduates.The spine was developed and delivered for the first time in the academic year 2010-2011 for first-year general engineering students. In the year 2011-2012, those students joined different programs, and accordingly the second-year course was tailored to align with the different programs’ learning outcomes. This paper discusses the development and implementation of the course in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department.


NASPA Journal ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Blackburst ◽  
Frances Pearson

The authors explore traditional assumptions about the relative emphasis faculty members and student affairs administrators place on cognitive and affective development in the classroom. Through use of the Instructor Self-Assessment Forms and the Student Assessment Form, both groups' perceptions of the extent to which faculty and student affairs administrators emphasized these goals in a freshman orientation course are examined.


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