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SAM Projects: Saving Your School Time and Money

SAM Projects: Saving Your School Time and Money. Steven Freund / University of Central Florida. Session Overview. Introduction About SAM SAM @ UCF Time and Money Savings Student Performance Best Practices Contact Information Questions and Answers. Introduction. Steven Freund

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SAM Projects: Saving Your School Time and Money

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  1. SAM Projects: Saving Your School Time and Money Steven Freund / University of Central Florida

  2. Session Overview • Introduction • About SAM • SAM @ UCF • Time and Money Savings • Student Performance • Best Practices • Contact Information • Questions and Answers

  3. Introduction • Steven Freund • Coordinate two high-enrollment introductory computer courses • ~5,000 students per year • Teach computer concepts, Windows basics, and Microsoft Office • SAM plays a critical role in both courses

  4. About SAM • Skills Assessment Manager • Assessment • Training • Projects • Projects use auto-grading technology to provide students with instant feedback • Projects mirror end of chapter exercises in Shelly Cashman, New Perspectives, and Illustrated Office 2007 books • Capstone projects serve as a “final exam” for each Office program

  5. About SAM • SAM 2007 v6.0 (available this Summer) will grade Access projects • No technical expertise required to set up or use SAM • Great help with accreditation

  6. SAM @ UCF • Two courses: CGS 1060 and CGS 2100 • CGS 1060 • SAM used for weekly Word, PowerPoint, and Excel assignments • SAM “exams” given at the end of teaching each Office program • Practice “exams” help prepare students

  7. SAM @ UCF • CGS 2100 • Traditional assignments • SAM exams given at the end of teaching each Office program • Practice exams

  8. SAM @ UCF • CGS 1060: • http://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cgs1060 • CGS 2100 • http://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cgs2100

  9. Time and Money Savings • Students receive instant feedback and detailed reports about their performance (and errors) • Students know exactly where they need to improve • You immediately can adjust your curriculum to help reinforce concepts students are missing

  10. Time and Money Savings • You also can adjust your curriculum to spend less time teaching concepts students “get.” • On average, it takes our teaching assistants one hour to grade an assignment for a class of 30 students

  11. Time and Money Savings • Let’s do the math! • 1 lab section has 9 SAM “activities” each semester • 1 hour per week dedicated to grading the “activity” • $8 / hour for a teaching assistant • $8 x 9 hours per semester = $72 per 30 students

  12. Time and Money Savings • If our CGS 1060 class has 1,000 students in a given semester, that saves us $2,400 • But wait… there’s more! • That’s just for one class in one semester • We still have two other semesters • … and CGS 2100! • UCF ends up saving about $10,000 per year

  13. Student Performance • We easily can track student performance • My research has shown that students who take the practice test (and succeed) usually get an A on the real test • Extremely consistent scoring

  14. Best Practices • “Practice” and “real” tests • Pay attention to Frequency Analysis Reports • In large classes, import your users • Make SAM Training available to your students

  15. Contact Information • Steven Freund • University of Central Florida • E-mail: sfreund@eecs.ucf.edu • Phone: (407) 823-4697

  16. Questions and Answers

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