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Sponsored by. JISC Conference 2006. OpenMentor. Joint Information Systems Committee. Supporting education and research. OpenMentor: Opening tutors’ eyes to the written support given to students on their assignments. Denise Whitelock, The Open University. d.m.whitelock@open.ac.uk
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Sponsored by JISC Conference 2006 OpenMentor Joint Information Systems Committee Supporting education and research
OpenMentor: Opening tutors’ eyes to the written support given to students on their assignments Denise Whitelock, The Open University. d.m.whitelock@open.ac.uk Stuart Watt, Robert Gordon University s.n.k.watt@rgu.ac.uk
What is OpenMentor? • “An open source mentoring tool for tutors” • “Open source” = free and easy to use, and to embed in an institutions infrastructure and working practices • “mentoring” = designed to help people learn how to give feedback effectively, through reflection and social networks • “tutors” = primarily intended for teaching staff, but with clear applications for those involved in quality
How does it work? • Codes comments into Bales categories • Four main groupings • A. Positive reactions • B. Directing/teaching • C. Questions • D. Negative reactions
Does OpenMentor model the way tutors comment on assignments? • Data derived from OU courses • Categories: • A = positive reactions • B = attempted answers • C = questions • D = negative reactions • A, B, C correlations all statistically significant • This forms an implicit model of good practice in tutor feedback
Does OpenMentor work in the way tutors and students expect? • 46 students and 44 tutors responded to a questionnaire to test OM’s underlying tutorial model • Findings suggest: • Lower grades should attract more detailed comments and explanation by the tutor (students) • Higher grades should attract more positive comments (students and tutors) • Lower grades attract more questions and suggestions (tutors) • Model supported by pedagogical study
“Good work” “Yes, well done” “Yes, but is this useful?” “Can you explain what you mean” “This does not follow” A = positive reactions A = positive reactions B = attempted answers, and not a positive reaction C = questions D = negative reactions How Open Mentor handles comments
OpenMentor in action Demonstration
Inside Open Mentor Bench- marks Course info Web interface Analyser Assess- ments Extractor Classifier
Current and future developments • Embedding in institutional practice • Enhancing quality of first year provision • Links to VLEs and information systems • Spinning out components • Word text extraction (Apache POI) • Uptake of open source • Maven, Spring, Subversion, Hibernate • Further development • Support for students, course evaluation, etc…