296,311 research outputs found
An item analysis on multiple-choice questions: a case of a junior high school English try-out test in Indonesia
The present study aims to analyze multiple-choice questions obtained from a trial testing conducted in a state junior high school in Indonesia. The study seeks to reveal the level of difficulty, discriminating power and distractor efficiency of the selected test items by employing item analysis. The result of the study discovers that levels of difficulty on the question items are varied. Some question tended to be easy and moderately difficult while the others are difficult to answer. It also uncovers that, in regard to discriminating power, some questions are well constructed while the others are ambiguously worded that can potentially cause the questions to fail to evaluate the students’ ability. The analysis on distractor efficiency presents information how the chosen multiple-choice questions were frequently constructed with less effective distractors that caused more high achieving students to choose wrong answers
Practice and Assessment of Reading Classes Using Moodle
This research paper details the extensive use of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)
for a content-based reading syllabus at Gunma University, through the software program Moodle
(Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment ), a free and open-source software learning
management system used at Gunma University.
The research basis of this paper is within the sphere of Action Research , as a valuable professional
development tool (Nunan, 2001) based on this researcher’s perceived valuation of the system and how it
could better aid students to perform better in and be more motivated towards their English language and
reading studies, introduce new technological skills and abilities, and aid teachers in better preparation,
teaching and assessment of reading classes. Moodle enthuses that the Lesson Module ‘enables a teacher
to deliver content and/or practice activities in interesting and flexible ways...teachers can choose to
increase engagement and ensure understanding by including a variety of questions, such as multiple choice,
matching and short answer.’ (Moodle, 2016). Therefore, this paper will ascertain whether the syllabus
achieved a greater engagement and enjoyment by the students, and ensured better comprehension and
understanding of key tasks and instructions. In addition, it will detail how teachers can benefit course
management by employing such technology within the classroom
Automating question generation from educational text
The use of question-based activities (QBAs) is wide-spread in education,
traditionally forming an integral part of the learning and assessment process.
In this paper, we design and evaluate an automated question generation tool for
formative and summative assessment in schools. We present an expert survey of
one hundred and four teachers, demonstrating the need for automated generation
of QBAs, as a tool that can significantly reduce the workload of teachers and
facilitate personalized learning experiences. Leveraging the recent
advancements in generative AI, we then present a modular framework employing
transformer based language models for automatic generation of multiple-choice
questions (MCQs) from textual content. The presented solution, with distinct
modules for question generation, correct answer prediction, and distractor
formulation, enables us to evaluate different language models and generation
techniques. Finally, we perform an extensive quantitative and qualitative
evaluation, demonstrating trade-offs in the use of different techniques and
models.Comment: Accepted to AI-2023 (Forty-third SGAI International Conference on
Artificial Intelligence) as a long paper, link:
http://www.bcs-sgai.org/ai202
Philosophers’ Views on the Use of Non-Essay Assessment Methods: Discussion of an E-Mail Survey
This paper presents and discusses the results of an email survey which asked participants to share their views on the efficacy of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, or matching questions as evaluation methods in philosophy courses. First, the structure of the survey and its contents are explained. Next, responses are broken down along the lines of student responses and teacher responses. In both cases, there was significant disagreement among respondents, though there were notable patterns emerged. Student arguments in favor of non-essay assessment emphasized the expedience; arguments against emphasized the inadequacy of such evaluation methods to the nuances of philosophical material. Teacher responses echoed student responses but included considerations of fairness, ambiguity in student answers, student motivation, and justifications for non-essay assessment in specific contexts. Finally, the author discusses respondents’ opinions on whether philosophy departments should ban non-essay questions. The author concludes by suggesting that the results of this survey merit attention as an indication of how widespread the difficulties of non-essay assessment are and as an indication of the diversity of views on the subject
Scrum2Kanban: Integrating Kanban and Scrum in a University Software Engineering Capstone Course
Using university capstone courses to teach agile software development
methodologies has become commonplace, as agile methods have gained support in
professional software development. This usually means students are introduced
to and work with the currently most popular agile methodology: Scrum. However,
as the agile methods employed in the industry change and are adapted to
different contexts, university courses must follow suit. A prime example of
this is the Kanban method, which has recently gathered attention in the
industry. In this paper, we describe a capstone course design, which adds the
hands-on learning of the lean principles advocated by Kanban into a capstone
project run with Scrum. This both ensures that students are aware of recent
process frameworks and ideas as well as gain a more thorough overview of how
agile methods can be employed in practice. We describe the details of the
course and analyze the participating students' perceptions as well as our
observations. We analyze the development artifacts, created by students during
the course in respect to the two different development methodologies. We
further present a summary of the lessons learned as well as recommendations for
future similar courses. The survey conducted at the end of the course revealed
an overwhelmingly positive attitude of students towards the integration of
Kanban into the course
Extending Item Response Theory to Online Homework
Item Response Theory becomes an increasingly important tool when analyzing
``Big Data'' gathered from online educational venues. However, the mechanism
was originally developed in traditional exam settings, and several of its
assumptions are infringed upon when deployed in the online realm. For a large
enrollment physics course for scientists and engineers, the study compares
outcomes from IRT analyses of exam and homework data, and then proceeds to
investigate the effects of each confounding factor introduced in the online
realm. It is found that IRT yields the correct trends for learner ability and
meaningful item parameters, yet overall agreement with exam data is moderate.
It is also found that learner ability and item discrimination is over wide
ranges robust with respect to model assumptions and introduced noise, less so
than item difficulty
The use of computers as substitute tutors for marketing students
The use of computers as substitute tutors is associated primarily, though not exclusively, with multiple‐choice question formats (Ellington, Percival and Race, 1993). We report the findings of a project that involved the design, testing and evaluation of a set of computer‐based tutorials employing multiple‐choice questions with 700 students on postgraduate and undergraduate introductory Marketing modules. The computer‐based tutorials were designed to meet two main objectives, namely to help students in their formative assessment and to help staff monitor any difficulties students were experiencing with module content. However, students incorporated the tutorials into their learning in ways that had not been anticipated specifically; they used the tutorials for a number of related but different purposes, and their usage patterns varied considerably
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