E-assessment: how can we support tutors with their marking of electronically submitted assignments?

One of the problems with tutor feedback to students is that a balanced combination of socio emotive and cognitive support is required from the teaching staff, and the feedback needs to be relevant to the assigned grade. Is it possible to capitalise on technology to build training systems for tutors in Higher Education, that will support them with their feedback to students, and which will encourage their students to become more reflective learners? One approach to this question was to build an electronic tool to support tutors in the feedback process. Our work has involved building an open-source mentoring tool for tutors, known as Open Mentor. This tool analyses and displays the different types of comments provided by the tutor as feedback to the student. It then provides reflective comments to the tutor about their use of feedback. Open Mentor was not designed for use at institutional level, but to give teaching staff a tool that can be used in training and also later as personal support that will enable individual tutors to track their use of feedback to students

Open mentor: Supporting tutors with their feedback to students

Assessment is one of the major challenges for higher education today. This is partly because it traditionally squares the desire for improved constructivist learning against the demand for institutional reliability and accountability. The call for a pedagogically-driven model for e-Assessment was acknowledged as part of a vision for teaching and learning in 2014 (Whitelock and Brasher 2006). Experts believe that such a model will allow students in Higher Education to take more control of their learning and hence become more reflective. These are indeed laudable aims but how can they be implemented in practice? One of the problems with tutor feedback to students is that a balanced combination of socio-emotive and cognitive support is required from the teaching staff, and the feedback needs to be relevant to the assigned grade. Is it possible to capitalise on technology to build training systems for tutors in Higher Education, that will support them with their feedback to students, and which will encourage their students to become more reflective learners

Putting Pedagogy in the driving seat with Open Comment: an open source formative assessment feedback and guidance tool for History Students

One of the more challenging aspects in the current e-assessment milieu is to provide a set of electronic interactive tasks that will allow students more free text entry and provide immediate feedback to them. The specific objective of the project was to construct some simple tools in the form of Moodle extensions that allow a Moodle author to ask free-text response questions that can provide a degree of interactive formative feedback to students. In parallel with this was the aim to begin to develop a methodology for constructing such questions and their feedback effectively, together with techniques for constructing decision rules for giving feedback. Open Comment is a formative feedback technology designed to be integrated in the Moodle virtual learning environment. Put simply, it provides a simple system allowing questions to be written in Moodle, and for students' free text responses to these questions to be analysed and used to provide individually customised formative feedback

Impulse

Features:[Page] 2 \u27Historic Day\u27 at Jerome Lohr Structures Lab: October 25, 2006, is a day Nadim Wehbe will long remember.[Page] 4 Jason Zemlicka: A former city road crew worker helps with bridge girder testing. [Page] 5 Mountain Plains Consortium: SDSU accepted into a regional university transportation center. [Page] 6 Turning grass into gas: Mechanical engineers help in researching new energy source. [Page] 8 Weapons research: SDSU, four partners developing fatigue odometer sensor for military. [Page] 9 A Ph.D. in ME?: The State Legislature is being asked to approved a doctorate in mechanical engineering.[Page] 10Homestake Mine: SDSU has deep hopes for an underground science lab in the Black Hills.College:[Page] 12 Creating engineering interests: Middle and high school girls targeted. [Page] 14 ACE & YEA camps: A week at SDSU gives teens a glimpse of future careers.[Page] 16 Faculty outreach seminars: Seminars fill role in educating professionals. [Page] 18 Making the \u27college try\u27 possible: Citibank helps fund Native American program. [Page] 19 Phonathon record: Slow start doesn\u27t keep students from hitting record total.Students: [Page] 20 Grad student profiles: Amanda Boushek, Alfred Furth, and Cory Mettler. [Page] 22 ASCE honors: Community service helps chapter gain another zone award. [Page] 23 Senior Design Conference: A summary of the thirty-five projects undertaken. [Page] 46 Solar power in the wild: Electrical engineering class sets up solar power system.Faculty:[Page] 27 Faculty News[Page] 28 New facultyAlumni:[Page] 29 Distinguished: Honored alums and engineers profiled.[Page] 38 Justin Petersen: Engineer seeks master\u27s degree while holding Banner job.[Page] 44 Dick Bue: CEalum is a prime example of engineering versatility.https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/coe_impulse/1011/thumbnail.jp

Improving a tutor’s feedback assessment tool: transforming Open Mentor following two recent deployments

Evidence shows the vital role that the quality of feedback plays on students’ performance and on the overall increase of learning opportunities that good feedback creates for students. Based on this evidence, the Open University developed Open Mentor (OM), a system to support tutors enhance their feedback practice. Open Mentor Technology transfer (OMTetra), a JISC funded project, took OM and deployed it in two Higher Education institutions with the purpose of evaluating the process of transferability and continue the development of the tools available to tutors within the system. This paper describes the original OM and the enhancements identified after use and evaluations from tutors of the institutions involved

Impulse

Features: [Page] 2 Expo\u27s physics wizard captures attention of high schoolers: The Wonders of Science never get old for Professor Larry Browning.[Page] 4 Science and Engineering Fair: The campus attracts nearly 500budding scientists every year[Page] 6 Key donation, cooperation create observatory at Oak Lake: Two remotely controlled telescopes will be in operation the fall.Faculty: [Page] 8 A Storry worth telling: Co-workers and former students remember late dean Junis Storry.[Page] 10 Math Professor Ken Yocom isn\u27t about to retire: Long-time department head has taken a new position. [Page] 12 Dennis Loban is remembered for quality and precise work[Page] 13 George Duffey may be retired, but he is not finished writing [Page] 15 Howard Nielsen sharpens the skills of a MATHCOUNTS team[Page] 16 Mike Ropp can now measure the speed of wind at more places[Page] 19 Derek Hengeveld and Mike Twedt are draft a new energy codeStudents: [Page] 20 Jordan Williams wins the Barry Goldwater Scholarship[Page] 22 For the second time in six years, SDSU claims the Ridgway[Page] 23 Civil engineering club again claims community service honors[Page] 24 Seven students spend spring break in Manchester, EnglandAlumni: [Page] 26 Hassoun, Micko, Morgan named Distinguished Engineers[Page] 28 From Briggs to Morgan, a list of all Distingui bed Engineers[Page] 30 Seven engineering grads used in SDSU television campaign[Page] 47 Col. Beth Kaspar salutes her alma materContributors: [Page] 30-35 Dean\u27s Club[Page] 36-46 Donorshttps://openprairie.sdstate.edu/coe_impulse/1015/thumbnail.jp

Addressing the Challenges of Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education: A collaborative effort across three UK Universities

Assessment has been identified as one of the major challenges faced by Higher Education Institutions (Whitelock, et al, 2007). As a response to the challenge, in a project funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Open Mentor (OM) was developed as a learning support tool for tutors to help them reflect on the quality of feedback given to their students on assignments submitted electronically. Its development was based on the fundamental theory that there was convincing evidence of systematic connections between different types of tutor comments and the level of attainment in an assignment (Whitelock, et al 2004). OM analyses, filters, and classifies tutor comments through an algorithm based on Bale’s Interaction Process. As a result, tutor’s feedback comments are classified into four categories namely: Positive reactions, Teaching points, Questions and Negative reactions. The feedback provided is analysed against an ideal number of feedback comments that an assignment given a mark of a specific band should have. Reports are provided in OM to support tutors in the task of reflecting on their feedback structure, content and style. The JISC-funded Open Mentor technology transfer (OMtetra) project is continuing the work initiated by the Open University implementing OM at the University of Southampton and King’s College London. OMtetra aims at taking up OM and extending its use by developing the system further and ultimately offering better support to tutors and students in the assessment process. A group of tutors from the University of Southampton and Kings’ College are at present using OM in their teaching and assessment. In this paper, we explore potential improvements to OM in three aspects: user interface, technology implementation and analysis algorithm design. For the user experience aspect suggested additions to OM include the creation of a simple entry form where tutors may validate the results of the analysis of the feedback comments. In addition, enhancements to OM will facilitate uploading of students and modules information into the system. Presently, OM utilises a built-in database of users that needs to be maintained separately from institutional systems. Improvements for this system feature include a more flexible authentication module which would simplify the deployment of the system in new environments and thus promote uptake by a larger number of institutions. In order to reach this goal, the system will be migrated to an open source framework which provides out-of-the-box integration with various authentication systems. The last to improve is the analysis algorithm. Currently, OM classifies tutors’ comments into four categories by applying an underlying text matching algorithm. This method could be improved if tutors are allowed to confirm comments’ classification through the OM interface and a free-text classification algorithm. As the number of users grow, so will the algorithm and analysis process, making it more comprehensive and intelligent as the keywords used during analysis are dynamically expanded. OMtetra is an on-going project with a lot of potential. We believe that the outcomes from the development and trial implementations of OM will contribute highly to the area of assessment in higher education

Impulse

Features: [Page] 2 South Dakota no longer is merely a launching pad: An industrialization of the economy has made the state a land of opportunity for engineers while still having a small town feel.[Page] 4 While you were away: Brookings and SDSU aren\u27t the places many alums remember them to be.[Page] 6 What will lead future growth in the region?: University and community leaders are proposing a 134-acre research park adjacent to the SDSU campus.[Page] 8 GIS Center of Excellence: Scientists have been hired for the inaugural year of operation for the Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence.Students: [Page] 10 Right brain meets left brain: Graphic design majors create the Engineering Expo logo[Page] 11 Making a game of it: Creativity was the key in a new computer programming contest[Page] 12 Senior design links students, sponsors[Page] 16 What a job: Joe Schenkel gains an eight-week internship at NASA[Page] 18 Record-setting Phonathon: Putting fun into fundraising[Page] 19 Extreme makeover: Storage room becomes a tech lab[Page] 20 Jennifer Shin: IBM internship fast-forwards her careerFaculty[Page] 22 Bob Lacher: Retiring after thirty-five-year career in math[Page] 24 Chuck Tiltrum: Student favorite leaving CE DepartmentCollege[Page] 26 NASA impressed: Kevin Dalsted presents award to Hillcrest[Page] 28 Water center: New name, defined focus for Water ResearchAlumni[Page] 30 Distinguished Engineers: Gaspar, Christianson, Walker, OeKraai[Page] 33 Roderick Anderson: Forty-one years of giving back to SDSU[Page] 46 Tom Liebsch: EE grad leads team in designing fastest computerContributors[Page] 30-35 Dean\u27s Club[Page] 36-45 Donorshttps://openprairie.sdstate.edu/coe_impulse/1013/thumbnail.jp

Impulse

Features: [Page] 2 New scoreboards put Jacks, alums on high-tech display: Daktronics installs its most unique system yet [Page] 4 Lighting the way: New electrical engineering doctorate to focus on photovoltaics [Page] 6 Minor approved in biomedical engineering: Students can now earn a minor degree in this hot field [Page] 8 Construction Management program gets \u27big gold star\u27: The first and only CM program in the state is now accredited[Page] 10 JEC brings Gibson, Boisjoly to campus: Former astronaut, aerospace engineer deliver their messageStudents:[Page] 11 Haskins + 3 = 4 Geotek interns: Gaining real-world experience [Page] 12 Whitney Karpen: She doesn\u27t have one ideal career, she has three [Page] 14 Life after college: Student trips help shape career goals [Page] 16 Jennifer Shin: Summer stint leads to IBM job offer [Page] 17 Senior Design Conference: Applying skills to real-world problems[Page] 18 Job Fair: A pivotal source for students\u27 careersCollege: [Page] 19 Bartlett & West Engineers: Alumni generosity creates resource room [Page] 20 Advisory Board: Introducing its twenty-three members [Page] 24 New Faculty and Appointments: Welcome to the new eighteenAlumni:[Page] 25 Children of Alumni: Tuition policy hopes to attract more non-residents to SDSU[Page] 26 Jim Wilcox: Touching South Dakota lives[Page] 28 Harvey Owren: Researcher gives back to support faculty education[Page] 29 Dornbush Scholarship: Kudos to Doc from former studentsContributors:[Page] 30 Dean\u27s Clubhttps://openprairie.sdstate.edu/coe_impulse/1012/thumbnail.jp

Impulse

Features: [Page] 2 Enterprise Institute moves from idea to $2.3-million building: Three agencies operating out of three-story Enterprise Center.[Page] 6 ACE & YEA camps put high schoolers on career path: The Aerospace Career and Education camp and the Youth Engineering Adventure camp both bring high schoolers lo camp for a week in the summer. Many of them are coming back when it\u27s time to enroll as a collegian. Corporate sponsorship may help camp numbers grow.College:[Page] 9 Four Programs reaccredited: The Electrical, Mechanical. Civil Engineering, and Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering programs all have been reaccredited for six years.[Page] 10 New Doctorates: Classes begin in !he fall for degrees in statistics and geospatial scienceFaculty[Page] 12 Dennis Helder wins top award: USGS honors department head with its top honor to non-employees[Page] 14 Hassan Ghazi: retiring mechanical engineering professor marked twenty years at SDSU[Page] 15 Nadim Wehbe: The College doesn\u27t stop teaching engineers after they\u27ve been employed[Page] 16 Delvin De Boer: A class for water plant operators has one a national education award[Page] 18 Dennis Helder, Sung Shin: Korean manufacturers may decide to move facilities to South Dakota[Page] 20 Orie Leisure: After thirty-nine years, physics professor Leisure is ready for some leisure.[Page] 22 Structures test: First tests performed in Jerry Lohr Structure LabStudents: [Page] 23 New map: EROS replaces black-and-white map in Crothers[Page] 24 Robiotics: Freshman ME major returns to high school to help[Page] 26 Swedish Engineers: Three Swedes adjust to life in South Dakota Alumni:[Page] 28 Joe Vogel: Creates first scholarship for software engineering programContributors: [Page 30-32] Dean\u27s Clubhttps://openprairie.sdstate.edu/coe_impulse/1014/thumbnail.jp