This paper reports a technology-enhanced formative feedback intervention within the Digital Systems module taken by first year computing students at Dundalk Institute of Technology. Digital Systems introduces key concepts of logic, networking and system administration, interwoven with their related mathematical underpinnings in a lecture and lab environment.
Large lectures remain a commonly delivery method within higher education, albeit with known pedagogical limitations (Bertozzi, 2016). However, their improvement rather than abandonment is increasingly advocated, with most interventions attempting to address their one-way nature (Richardson, 2008).
To self-assess and improve their learning, students increasingly need accessible rapid formative feeedback (Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006), which technology enhancements can provide whilst minimising staff workload. Reported success of formative quizzes within Marketing (McKendrick and Markham, 2007) suggested that Digital Systems could similarly benet. In technical subjects, an additional complication is that inbuilt formula engines in common VLEs cannot accomodate quantitative questions of even moderate complexity.
The pilot proceeded with three quizzes throughout the semester. Calculated questions proved sufcient to cover most course areas. For more complex numerical topics, questions were generated ofine using Python, and imported using the GIFT format (Zeileis et al., 2012). Moodle's Adaptive Mode was used, applying a 33% penalty for each incorrect attempt at a question. Students could attempt the entire quiz as often as desired, and see their score improve.
Engagement statistics from Moodle showed that 61 % of students accessed at least one quiz. The majority of students attempting each quiz achieved grades in excess of 90 %. Positive aspects cited by student feedback included the ease of use, opportunity to repeat and instantaneous feedback delivery. Students suggested future extension of formative quizzes to all areas of the course. Arising practitioner recommendations include phased introduction and use of offline question generation to augment VLE capabilities.
This case study was conducted as part of the multi-institutional Y1Feedback (http://www.y1feedback.ie) project, which was funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning.
Keywords
feedback, formative, moodle, quiz, adaptive mode, problem set, Python
References
Carolyn R Bertozzi. Back to the lecture. ACS Central Science, 2(8):483{485, 2016. doi: 10.1021/acscentsci. 6b00224.
Mel McKendrick and Pippa Markham. Principles of marketing case study report. Technical report, University of Strathclyde, 2007.
David J Nicol and Debra Macfarlane-Dick. Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in higher education, 31(2):199{218, 2006.
Daniel Richardson. Don't dump the didactic lecture; x it. Advances in Physiology Education, 32:23{24, 2008.
Achim Zeileis, Nikolaus Umlauf, and Friedrich Leisch. Flexible generation of e-learning exams in R: Moodle quizzes, OLAT assessments, and beyond. Working papers, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, University of Innsbruck, 2012. URL http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inn:wpaper:2012-27.
Topics: Assessment and feedback in a digital age , Topics: Digital technologies in disciplinary contexts
