Developing e-assessment using the quiz activity within Moodle: empowering student learning

Using formative assessment within Moodle has been shown to encourage self-directed learning (Bromham & Oprandi, 2006). Our experience of using formative assessment quizzes as stand alone entities, as well as within Moodle lessons, has been used to introduce Moodle assessment quizzes over the past year in Level 1 and Level 2 Life Sciences courses. This experience has been distilled to inform the content of this workshop. Some advantages of incorporating assessments in the form of Moodle quizzes are that they allow for quick, reproducible and flexible assessment with a relatively small initial set-up cost, and substantial long-term staff and administration savings. One significant advantage is that staff and room pressures can be reduced as students can attempt the assessment at a time and location of their choice within a specified time period. This flexibility can help to reduce student stress associated with completion of a continuous assessment for their course. It is also a relatively simple process to account for students entitled to extra time during assessments. Providing clear instructions beforehand and at the start of the quiz ensures that students understand their responsibilities for completion of this assessment and ultimately the course. There are some disadvantages and limitations to the system as it currently exists, for example there is the perceived ability for students to “cheat” by completing the assessment as a group, accessing books and the internet. Strategies to account for these can be put in place and will be discussed in detail during the workshop. This workshop aims to take the participants through the initial set up of a quiz, highlighting the various question types and how these can be used to create a challenging assessment that can be quickly graded and prove informative for staff and course development. Reference Bromham L. & Oprandi P. (2006) Evolution online: developing active and blended learning by using a virtual learning environment in an introductory biology course. Journal of Biological Education 41 (1): 21-25

Facilitating change: tablet PC trials across two distance education focused universities

This paper reports on initial findings in comparing two distance universities’ approaches to trialling tablet technology to enhance communication between instructors and students. There were different reasons for initiating the trials and different approaches to each of the trials, but there were also some striking similarities. For instance both trials were led from the bottom up, however they were each conducted with no knowledge of the other. Funding for each of these trials was resourced from a university learning and teaching grant/fellowship and both projects used an action research approach. The emphasis for both trials was on pedagogical and technological staff development facilitated and administered through each project leader. The paper gives an overview of how the trials were conducted, what did and did not succeed and what could be improved. Longer lasting outcomes that have been achieved through these projects are described. This comparison is meant to guide and inform change agents and identify good practice in the management of technology trials

Innovating Pedagogy 2015: Open University Innovation Report 4

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This fourth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. We proposed a long list of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice, particularly in post-school education. Lastly, we drew on published and unpublished writings to compile the ten sketches of new pedagogies that might transform education. These are summarised below in an approximate order of immediacy and timescale to widespread implementation

Supporting graduate teaching assistants in two STEM areas

No abstract available

Enabling innovative postgraduate research: critical foresight and strategic considerations for university leaders

Innovative postgraduate research is an outcome, not a means in itself. It requires necessary preconditions to flourish in the higher education system. Neither the system underpinning postgraduate research nor the students themselves can make this happen. Rather, the worldviews and assumptions of leaders as decision-makers who continually build, amend and deconstruct higher education systems, are critical precursors to nurturing innovative postgraduate research. There is almost universal agreement that universities are fundamentally important to the overall progress and development of a nation and are a collective barometer of global human progress. They are vital in shaping global, national and local futures. The impact of universities is broader than their traditional remit and encompasses a full diversity of ecological, social and economic outcomes. Universities have a pivotal role in achieving a shift from traditional sources of wealth to new service models, radical innovation and small and medium enterprise development. Disruptions faced by society are also disrupting traditionally monolithic and ‘slow to change’ university institutions. This necessarily challenges university leadership. While many still regard the world as thriving in the Information Age, it has been suggested that we have already transitioned into a new age, the Conceptual Age. Universities will need to address this shift to economies dependent on conceptual workers through their education model(s). A new profile of university leadership is rapidly emerging to enable the emergence of innovative postgraduate studies to meet this need. This paper explores the notion of ‘third generation postgraduate studies, how it works and what paradigms university leaders need to cultivate this critically important dimension of higher education to the advancement of communities, workplaces, innovation, the economy and ultimately societal advancement

Nature of science for chemistry education : Design of chemistry teacher education course

Nature of science (NOS) describes what science is, how it works, how scientists operate, and the interaction between science and society. As a crucial element of scientific literacy, knowledge about NOS is widely recognized as one of the key aims of chemistry education. To enhance students understanding of NOS, teachers need adequate understanding of NOS as well as sufficient pedagogical content knowledge related to NOS for translating their understanding of NOS into classroom practice. This thesis reports an educational design research project on the design and development of a pre-service chemistry teacher education course on NOS instruction. Educational design research is the systematic study of the design and development of educational interventions for addressing complex educational problems. It advances the knowledge about the characteristics of designed interventions and the processes of design and development. The thesis consists of four interconnected studies and documents two iterative design research cycles of problem analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation. The first two studies describe how NOS is presented in the national frame curricula and upper secondary school chemistry textbooks. These studies provide a quantitative method for analysis of representations of NOS in chemistry textbooks and curricula, as well as describe the components of domain-specific NOS for chemistry education. The other two studies document the design, development, and evaluation of the goals and instructional practices used on the course. Four design solutions were produced: (i) description of central dimensions of domain-specific NOS for chemistry education, (ii) research group visits to prevent the diluting of relevance to science content and research, (iii) a teaching cycle for explicit and structured opportunities for reflection and discussion, and (iv) collaborative design assignments for translating NOS understanding into classroom practice. The evaluations of the practicality and effectiveness of the design solutions are based on the reflective essays and interviews of the pre-service teachers, which were collected during the course, as well as on the four in-depth interviews of selected participants, collected a year after they had graduated as qualified teachers. The results suggest that one critical factor influencing pre-service chemistry teachers commitment to teach NOS was the possibility to implement NOS instruction during the course. Thus, the use of collaborative peer teaching and integrating student teaching on NOS instruction courses is suggested as a strategy to support the development of the attitudes, beliefs, and skills necessary for teaching NOS. And even though the outside forces of school culture (e.g. school community, curriculum, textbooks) tend to constrain rather than support novice teachers efforts to implement new practices, the results also demonstrate that a pre-service teacher education course can be successful in producing innovators or early adopters of NOS instruction. Thus it might be one of the first steps in the challenging task of injecting NOS instruction into the chemistry curriculum for enhancing students understanding of NOS and strengthening their scientific literacy

From Gatekeeping to Engagement: A Multicontextual, Mixed Method Study of Student Academic Engagement in Introductory STEM Courses.

The lack of academic engagement in introductory science courses is considered by some to be a primary reason why students switch out of science majors. This study employed a sequential, explanatory mixed methods approach to provide a richer understanding of the relationship between student engagement and introductory science instruction. Quantitative survey data were drawn from 2,873 students within 73 introductory science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses across 15 colleges and universities, and qualitative data were collected from 41 student focus groups at eight of these institutions. The findings indicate that students tended to be more engaged in courses where the instructor consistently signaled an openness to student questions and recognizes her/his role in helping students succeed. Likewise, students who reported feeling comfortable asking questions in class, seeking out tutoring, attending supplemental instruction sessions, and collaborating with other students in the course were also more likely to be engaged. Instructional implications for improving students' levels of academic engagement are discussed