Events
We ran two Symposia in early 2003. The first, on February 12th was concerned with Measurement and Item Analysis. You can read the report here: measurement-report.html. PDF and PPT files of presentations are being made available as they are provided. The second on April 30th was on Automated Free Text Assessment and the report for this here.
Abstracts
There is currently a debate
raging in online learning circles as to whether the future of online
education lies in the production of monolithic courses or in objects
and tools which allow teachers to tailor their own teaching material.
We're hoping to sponsor a debate on this subject in the Autumn. In the
meantime, SCROLLA HW will be giving two talks in this area, the first
at the forthcoming London conference 'Interactive Content in
Education'. Our abstract for this event is entitled: Empowering the Teacher with Tools to Produce Engaging Content [ICE Abstract].
The second is at the 'Shock of the Old' conference, held in Oxford in July entitled Tools Not Content Empower The Teacher And Learner [SHOCK Abstract].
Both talks take a look at the potential of simulations in education as
their starting point, though in fact their focus will be quite
different.
We have also had our abstract for the 7th CAA Conference
accepted. Entitled Online Assessment of Practical Experiments [CAA7 Abstract] it will be presented in Loughborough on the 8th/9th July 2003.
Meeting Reports
We try and write a
report of any event or meeting we go to. These might be one day
seminars, workshops, or fully fledged conferences. At present, there
are reports from:
- The ISAGA-SAGSET Conference
Held at Napier University,
this conference was the combined annual conference for SAGSET, the
(British) Society for the Advancement of Games and Simulations in
Education and Training) and ISAGA (The International Simulation and
Gaming Association). The report, by Ruth Thomas is available here: isaga-sagset2002.html [060902].
- IMS Open Technical Forum and Special Briefing
This
report covers two meetings held in Sheffield in September by the IMS
Global Learning Consortium. The report, by Colin Milligan is available
here: ims-sheffield260902.html [290902].
- IMS Question and Test Interoperability Special Interest Group
The CETIS Assessment Special Interest Group also met in Sheffield at the
end of September and we have a report from there too. The report, by
Colin Milligan is available here: qti-sheffield270902.html [290902].
- Game On
Games have often been cited as providing valuable learning opportunities. the report, by Ruth Thomas is available here:gameon2002.html [170203].
- RNIB: Implementing SENDA
With the advent of SENDA we
went along to see what implications it might have for online learning.
the report, by Colin Milligan is available here:rnibseeingopportunities.html [170203].
Overviews
We aim to provide
overviews of specific issues in learning technology as and when we do
any thinking about them. Please feel free to suggest areas of focus by
emailing c.d.milligan@ma.hw.ac.uk. - eLearning Standards Primer
The first of these
overviews is a simple Primer on emerging Learning Technology Standards.
This overview was written initially to provide some background for a
discussion on assessment, and starts off general before becoming
focused on the Question and Test Interoperability Specification. The
Standards Primer can be found here: imsprimer091002.html [091002].
A separate page has been prepared to hold all the overivews with specific relevance to assessment. This page can be found at www.scrolla.hw.ac.uk/focus.html [301002].
Demonstrations
One of the main problems
with choosing and using software to assist Teaching and Learning is
seeing the software in use before commiting yourself to using it. An
example of this is Computer Assisted Assessment (CAA) where the
learning curve for new software can be quite steep. We plan to evaluate
various CAA packages and where possible we shall put demonstrations and
link to demonstrations on these pages. - Heriot-Watt University is home to the CUE Assessment
engine, which is used in some of our work. An online demo of CUE
showing the range of available question types is available here - CUE Demo.
Reviews
To assist anyone trying to
choose an assessment engine, we have been reviewing a number of
assessment enignes for this site. these reviews are collected here.
- Question Mark Perception is one of the most widely known assessment
engines available. Jane Paterson wrote a review of the Assessment
system which can be read here: qmreport090402.html [0910402].
- The CUE Assessment System, developed here at Heriot-Watt
University is discussed in this article, also written by Jane Paterson
which originally appeared in the LTSN MathSTOR CAA Series. The article
can be read here: cuereport090402.html [0910402]..
Assessment Symposium
SCROLLA has run a
number of symposia, one of which was on the subject of Assessment.
Various Documents and Articles are available to support the event.
- The Presentations. This timetable provides links to each of the presentations delivered on the day.
- Two papers were prepared for presentation at the event. the first: IMS Question and Test Interoperability: An Idiot's Guide was written by Niall Sclater and Boon Low, CETIS Assessment Special Interest Group. The second: ICT in Assessment and Learning: The Evolving Role of an External Examinations Board
was written by Robert Harding, Director of Interactive Technologies in
Assessment and Learning (ITAL Unit) and Nicholas Raikes Research
Officer, University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES).
- The panel and audience comments are also available here: sympreport.doc.
We do hope that these are a true reflection of what was said but will
gladly change any personal comments if you contact
J.S.Paterson@hw.ac.uk
Publications
The work of the Staff and
Associates of SCROLLA has been delivered as papers at conferences and
published in online and print based journals:
- Ashton, H.S., & and Beevers, C.E.
Extending flexibility in an existing on-line assessment system,
Proc 6th International CAA Conference, Loughborough University pp 3 - 13 (2002).
www.lboro.ac.uk/service/ltd/flicaa/conf2002/pdfs/ashton_h1.pdf
- Beevers, C.E., & Paterson, J.S.
Assessment in Mathematics,
Chapter 4 pp 49 - 61 in book entitled "Effective Learning and
Teaching in Mathematics and its Applications" editors P Kahn and J
Kyle, London, Kogan Page (2002).
- Beevers, C.E., & Paterson, J.S.
Automatic Assessment of Problem Solving Skills in Mathematics,
Paper presented at International Conference on Communication, Problem Solving and Learning, Strathclyde University.
Paper to appear 2003. Active Learning in Higher Education, ILT, London, Sage Publications (2002)
- Paterson, J.S.
The SCHOLAR Project,
Academic Exchange Quarterly Journal, New York, (Winter 2001/2002).
- Paterson, J.S.
What's in a Name? A New Hierarchy for Question Types,
Proc 6th International Conference on CAA, Loughborough University, pp 285 - 292 (2002).
www.lboro.ac.uk/service/ltd/flicaa/conf2002/pdfs/paterson_j1.pdf
- Paterson, J.S.
Linking On-Line Assessment in Mathematics to Cognitive Skills,
Proc 6th International Conference on CAA, Loughborough University, pp 295 - 304 (2002).
www.lboro.ac.uk/service/ltd/flicaa/conf2002/pdfs/paterson_j2.pdf
- Milligan, C.D.
Question and Test Interoperability (QTI): Extending the specification for
Mathematics and Numerical Disciplines
LTSN MathSTOR Maths-CAA Series, (November 2003)
ltsn.mathstore.ac.uk/articles/maths-caa-series/nov2003/
- Paterson, J.S.
The CUE Assessment System,
LTSN MathSTOR Maths-CAA Series, (April 2002)
ltsn.mathstore.ac.uk/articles/maths-caa-series/apr2002/index.shtml
- Pitcher, N., Goldfinch, J., & Beevers, C.E.
Aspects of Computer Based Assessment in Mathematics,
Active Learning in Higher Education, Vol 3, 159 - 176 (2002).
- C E Beevers,
The Experiences of a University Teacher with a Visual Impairment,
LTSN Engineering publication on Disability p70 - 71 (2002).
www.ltsneng.ac.uk/downloads/disability_Guide_web.pdf
- G R McGuire, M A Youngson, A A Korabinski and D McMillan,
Partial Credit in Mathematics Exams: A Comparison between Traditional and CAA,
Proc 6th International CAA Conference, Loughborough University pp 223 - 230 (2002).
www.lboro.ac.uk/service/ltd/flicaa/conf2002/pdfs/mcguire_gr1.pdf
- G. R. McGuire and M. A. Youngson
Assessing ICT Assessment in Mathematics
LTSN MathSTOR Maths-CAA Series, March 2002
ltsn.mathstore.ac.uk/articles/maths-caa-series/mar2002/index.shtml
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