Strategies to Remove Barriers and Increase Motivation to Use the Tablet PC in Formative Assessment

2014 ◽  
pp. 164-177
Author(s):  
Antony Dekkers ◽  
Prue Howard ◽  
Nadine Adams ◽  
Fae Martin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Formative Assessment ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Tablet Pc ◽  
Mathematics Courses ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Education Courses ◽  
Preparatory Mathematics

The Tablet PC has been employed to provide feedback through formative assessment to students in preparatory mathematics courses at Central Queensland University for close to a decade. A study conducted in 2011 on formative assessment and feedback given via the Tablet PC within these courses conveyed extremely positive outcomes (Adams, Dekkers, & Elliott, 2012). Approximately 90% of the 140 students surveyed found the feedback beneficial to their learning and that assessment was returned, on average, within two to four days. These findings would indicate that these methods should be adopted into mainstream higher education courses (Adams, et al., 2012). Building on the research and experiences of staff involved in the use of the Tablet PC to provide feedback on formative assessment in preparatory mathematics courses, strategies to implement and improve these practices in undergraduate engineering courses are investigated in this chapter.

scholarly journals e-Assessment for learning and performativity in higher education: A case for existential learning

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Charteris ◽  
Fran Quinn ◽  
Mitchell Parkes ◽  
Peter Fletcher ◽  
Vicente Reyes
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Formative Assessment ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Assessment For Learning ◽  
Online Learning Environments ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
Support Students ◽  
Education Courses

<p class="Normal1">This paper provides a critical and contextualised exploration of assessment for learning (AfL) as an important area of scholarship in higher education, particularly in online learning environments. Although AfL can speak to a range of education discourses, the specific focus here is on the performativity and experiential learning discourses around individual and collective notions of AfL in online settings (e-AfL). We argue that e-AfL practices that emphasise performativity and are used primarily for technicist purposes impoverish their potential to promote learning. We explore the existential notion that e-AfL can transcend formulaic and procedural interpretations of formative assessment in higher education. Rich, divergent approaches to e-AfL can support students in higher education courses to develop their funds of identity, thereby enhancing learner reflexivity and agency.</p>

scholarly journals Embracing Difficulty across the Disciplines: The Difficulty Paper as a Tool for Building Disciplinary Literacy

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-89
Author(s):  
Jonathan Cisco
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Formative Assessment ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Disciplinary Literacy ◽  
Small Study ◽  
Habits Of Mind ◽  
Mathematics Courses ◽  
Good Reading ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Inductive Analysis

Students face challenging texts and concepts across the disciplines in higher education, and many students lack the reading skills and strategies to make sense of them. The aim of the small study described in this article was to explore the benefits, if any, of the difficulty paper, a written formative assessment that asks students to explore their difficulties with challenging texts. An inductive analysis of student difficulty papers in a multidisciplinary “Great Works” course suggests that the paper encouraged students to address their confusion without dismissing it and helped students to model the processes of good reading. Findings also suggest that the assignment may be a useful tool to develop disciplinary habits of mind. The article concludes with an example of how educators might use the difficulty paper in science and mathematics courses.

Strategies to Remove Barriers and Increase Motivation to Use the Tablet PC in Formative Assessment

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-55
Author(s):  
Antony Dekkers ◽  
Prue Howard ◽  
Nadine Adams ◽  
Fae Martin
Keyword(s):  
Formative Assessment ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Student Understanding ◽  
Tablet Pc ◽  
Mathematics Courses ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Tablet Pcs ◽  
Assessment Feedback ◽  
Barriers And Motivators

This paper investigates how engineering academics can be encouraged to integrate the use of the Tablet PC to improve student understanding of course content through formative assessment feedback. In particular, it looks at the barriers and motivators for using the Tablet PC. Based on the results obtained from studies conducted on the utilisation of Tablet PCs in preparatory mathematics courses, incorporation of the technology into engineering undergraduate courses would appear to benefit students. The Tablet PC is both an innovative and adaptive form of technology which is able to support the teaching and learning process. Through the recognition of the observed positives and negatives of Tablet PC application in other courses strategies will be implemented that remove the recognised barriers and provide benefits thus encouraging engineering academics to use the Tablet PC to provide feedback on formative assessment.

Social-Scientific Research Competency

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 737-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Gess ◽  
Christoph Geiger ◽  
Matthias Ziegler
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Research Education ◽  
Crystallized Intelligence ◽  
Research Competency ◽  
Social Scientific Research ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Education Courses

Abstract. Although the development of research competency is an important goal of higher education in social sciences, instruments to measure this outcome often depend on the students’ self-ratings. To provide empirical evidence for the utility of a newly developed instrument for the objective measurement of social-scientific research competency, two validation studies across two independent samples were conducted. Study 1 ( n = 675) provided evidence for unidimensionality, expected differences in test scores between differently advanced groups of students as well as incremental validities over and above self-perceived research self-efficacy. In Study 2 ( n = 82) it was demonstrated that the competency measured indeed is social-scientific and relations to facets of fluid and crystallized intelligence were analyzed. Overall, the results indicate that the test scores reflected a trainable, social-scientific, knowledge-related construct relevant to research performance. These are promising results for the application of the instrument in the evaluation of research education courses in higher education.

The Influence of the Established Links between University Courses on the Quality of Teaching

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-48
Author(s):  
Jiří Rybička ◽  
Petra Čačková
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
The Other ◽  
Coherent System ◽  
University Courses ◽  
Quality Of Teaching ◽  
Education Courses ◽  
Initial Knowledge

One of the tools to determine the recommended order of the courses to be taught is to set the prerequisites, that is, the conditions that have to be fulfilled before commencing the study of the course. The recommended sequence of courses is to follow logical links between their logical units, as the basic aim is to provide students with a coherent system according to the Comenius' principle of continuity. Declared continuity may, on the other hand, create organizational complications when passing through the study, as failure to complete one course may result in a whole sequence of forced deviations from the recommended curriculum and ultimately in the extension of the study period. This empirical study deals with the quantitative evaluation of the influence of the level of initial knowledge given by the previous study on the overall results in a certain follow-up course. In this evaluation, data were obtained that may slightly change the approach to determining prerequisites for higher education courses.

scholarly journals Multi-Class Assessment Based on Random Forests

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Mehdi Berriri ◽  
Sofiane Djema ◽  
Gaëtan Rey ◽  
Christel Dartigues-Pallez
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Random Forests ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithm ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Training Courses ◽  
Education Courses

Today, many students are moving towards higher education courses that do not suit them and end up failing. The purpose of this study is to help provide counselors with better knowledge so that they can offer future students courses corresponding to their profile. The second objective is to allow the teaching staff to propose training courses adapted to students by anticipating their possible difficulties. This is possible thanks to a machine learning algorithm called Random Forest, allowing for the classification of the students depending on their results. We had to process data, generate models using our algorithm, and cross the results obtained to have a better final prediction. We tested our method on different use cases, from two classes to five classes. These sets of classes represent the different intervals with an average ranging from 0 to 20. Thus, an accuracy of 75% was achieved with a set of five classes and up to 85% for sets of two and three classes.

scholarly journals Field-based Learning in Higher Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather N. Fedesco ◽  
Drew Cavin ◽  
Regina Henares
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Traditional Classroom ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
Education Courses

Field-based learning in higher education is lacking both in practice at colleges and in research within the academic literature. This study aims to address these deficits by exploring the benefits of, and suggesting strategies for, executing field study in higher education across a variety of courses. We report the results of a qualitative research design that included the observation of five courses within the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Approximately eight students per observed course were interviewed three times during their course to assess perceptions of the class, their peers and instructor, the field experiences, and their motivation throughout the course. In total, 130 individual interviews were conducted with 45 students. Results revealed that field-based learning enhances the degree of relatedness students feel with their classmates and instructors, they have a greater degree of intrinsic motivation in the course, and these experiences facilitate learning in ways that may not be replicated in the traditional classroom. In addition, we created a typology of field-based learning, which includes eight different trips that could be employed in higher education courses. We also identified general strategies to improve the execution of these trips.

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