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BASICS

BASICS. B uilding A S ystem to I ngrain C ore-competencie s David Dorran School of Electrical Engineering Systems College of Engineering & Built Environment david.dorran@dit.ie Ext: 4873. Typical Lecture Scenario?.

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BASICS

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  1. BASICS • Building ASystem 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

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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. Four Main Tasks • Identify core competencies within a programme – DT021 Electrical Engineering being used as test case. • Develop database of questions • Implementation – logistics and student perspective • Evaluation Teaching Fellowship 2010-11

  6. Identifying core competencies within a programme Teaching Fellowship 2010-11 • 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?” 6

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

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

  9. Evaluation - Methodology • Students participated in 3 focus groups - which were facilitated separately by Muireann O’Keefe(LTTC), Gavin Duffy(SEES, former Teaching Fellow),Brian Bowe (Head of Learning Development, EnBE) • Two focus groups were recorded (audio only) • Approx 6 students per group. 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. • Each facilitator was provided with a set of questions to guide the discussions (see http://eleceng.dit.ie/dorran/basics) Teaching Fellowship 2010-11

  10. Evaluation – Key findings Full reports at http://eleceng.dit.ie/dorran/ • 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

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

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