BASICS Building A System to Ingrain Corecompetencies David

BASICS Building A System to Ingrain Core-competencies David Dorran School of Electrical Engineering Systems College of Engineering & Built Environment david. dorran@dit. ie Ext: 4873 Teaching Fellowship 2010 -11 1

Typical Lecture Scenario? Lecturer: “Using the potential divider rule from first year theory the output voltage of the circuit is 4 volts” 2 nd year student : “I “Potential remember divider? ? ? hearing Voltage? ? “Oh yes – the potentialabout dividerthe rule, voltage divider rulevoltage – must look also known as the it up some – didn’t realise divider rule, time it shows how it was important”. voltage is spread across resistors in series” Teaching Fellowship 2010 -11 2

Possible Reasons Exams structured to allow content be omitted from exam studies. Surface learning for sole purpose of passing exam. Student unaware of relative importance of certain content. Teaching Fellowship 2010 -11 3

Project Objective Develop a system which encourages students to spend more time on fundamentals/basics. Implemented on webcourses: Easy/wide access Facility to provide quick feedback Easy reuse of quizzes (thanks Michael Carr!) Allows multiple attempts Automatic corrections Facility to track student progress (score and duration spent on quiz) Demo on webcourses Teaching Fellowship 2010 -11 4

Four Main Tasks 1. Identify core competencies within a programme – DT 021 Electrical Engineering being used as test case. 2. Develop database of questions 3. Implementation – logistics and student perspective 4. Evaluation Teaching Fellowship 2010 -11 5

Identifying core competencies within a programme 1. ◦ 2. ◦ ◦ Review module descriptors not very useful – too much information Discussions with colleagues Initially asked “What are the core competencies developed in your module? ” Changed this to: “What are the prerequisite core competencies for your module? ” Teaching Fellowship 2010 -11 6

Creating Question Database 1. Reused and adapted Michael Cores Maths quizzes. 2. Started with core competencies identified in stage 1 – applicable to all stages – Four categories of question: 3. Mathematics Electronic Systems Electrical Systems Programming – ability to read code Multiple choice questions avoided calculated questions preferred Teaching Fellowship 2010 -11 – webcourses 7

Implementation – Student Perspective 1. Students required to complete 6 core competency quizzes. 2. Quizzes feed into assessment of 3 modules – 2 per module. 3. Quizzes represent 5% of continuous assessment mark. 4. Students must score 80%+ in quizzes in order to receive any marks toward CA. 5. Quizzes available for one week – multiple attempts allowed – quizzes unsupervised Teaching Fellowship 2010 -11 8

Evaluation - Methodology 1. Students participated in 3 focus groups - which were facilitated separately by Muireann O’Keefe (LTTC), Gavin Duffy (SEES, former Teaching Fellow), Development, En. BE) Brian Bowe (Head of Learning 2. Two focus groups were recorded 3. Approx 6 students per group. 4. Each facilitator was provided with a set of questions to guide the discussions (see (audio only) Recorded groups were chosen to have at least one international student and one mature student. Non-recorded group coincidently only contained students who transferred in to the degree programme. http: //eleceng. dit. ie/dorran/basics) Teaching Fellowship 2010 -11 9

Evaluation – Key findings Full reports at http: //eleceng. dit. ie/dorran/ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Students felt the quizzes were beneficial as they help motivate revision. They felt that more quizzes related to material they were currently studying would be useful. Quizzes were time consuming – up to two hours in some cases. 5% of CA mark was enough to motivate them; as did the 80% pass mark A certain amount of copying occurred (approx 10% of questions completed without any real understanding – mainly multiple choice) Students felt they benefitted from having multiple attempts and being able to work together. Teaching Fellowship 2010 -11 10

Thanks for your attention! Questions/Suggestions/Comments? Teaching Fellowship 2010 -11 11