GENERATING AND USING MOODLE QUIZZES FOR MATHEMATICAL TOPICS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

1. GENERATING AND USING MOODLE QUIZZES FOR MATHEMATICAL TOPICS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION Mónica Blanco, Marta Ginovart Department of Applied Mathematics III Technical University of Catalonia Barcelona, SPAIN Abstract.This contribution focuses on the design, implementation and assessment of a range of Moodle quiz question pools. From these pools, we intend to generate quizzes for the compulsory undergraduate subjects of the applied mathematics field included in the first- and second-year syllabus for all branches of Engineering, following the guidelines of the European Higher Education Area. • INTRODUCTION • In 2002 the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) undertook the use of a virtual teaching tool, the campus Atenea, as a first step towards the European Higher Education Area. • Atenea is based on Moodle, an open source learning management system, which offers a wide variety of tools. One of these tools allows to create quizzes with different question types, adapted to the specific objectives to be achieved at any step in the teaching-learning process. A powerful tool for monitoring and diagnosing a student’s understanding of knowledge, Moodle quizzes contributes to the development of new strategies not practical with paper-based testing. • To explore how to apply these new strategies and be able to develop a substantial bank of quiz questions, we are carrying out a subsidized project by the Institute of Education Sciences of the UPC. • In this framework, this contribution aims to display the general purposes and features of this project, supported by the discussion of some preliminary results. • This contribution focuses on the design, implementation and assessment of a range of question pools in a Moodle framework. From these pools, we intend to generate quizzes suitable for the compulsory undergraduate subjects of the applied mathematics field included in the first and second year syllabus for all branches of Engineering: Algebra, Differential Calculus, Integral Calculus and Ordinary Differential Equations, Analysis of Data and Basic Statistical Inference. • The aims are: • To elaborate teaching material to supplement traditional face-to-face courses, namely, Moodle quizzes, to be adapted to every level of the teaching-learning process and to the specific scope of the subjects involved. • To use the created quizzes to promote a more effective, dynamic and autonomous learning. • To change teachers’ and students’ attitude towards the virtual campus Atenea, stressing its dynamic, interactive role in the teaching-learning process, far beyond its role as static course material manager. METHODOLOGY Moodle quiz questions can be of different types. Multiple-choice questions (single- and multiple-answer) True/False Calculated questions (a mathematical equation with placeholders for values that will be pulled randomly from a dataset) Numerical questions (like short-answer questions, with credit for answers within a range of answers) Different types of questions can be mixed on the same quiz, chosen manually or at random, displayed in a set order or a random order. Quiz questions can be organized into categories, which can be afterwards combined into larger groups. Question pools can be reused in multiple quizzes, shared between classes, and moved between systems, hence showing great versatility. Moodle’s quizzes module supplies a large number of options, thus making it an extremely flexible tool. All the editing options can be considered as transforming a quiz into a learning tool. Short-answer questions Embedded answers questions (or cloze, a passage of text, with answers inserted into the text). Matching questions (useful for testing students’ understanding of vocabulary and ability to match examples to concepts) Since assessment is one of the most important activities in education, feedback on performance plays a relevant role in the teaching-learning process. Teachers can decide whether to show feedback after answering, and if so, whether to show correct answers or not, allowing review or not. They can set the quiz for a limited time, determine the number of attempts allowed and whether each attempt builds in the last. Getting quick feedback after having taken a quiz is a useful tool for students to evaluate their own activity and help them become more successful, since they can analyze their own thinking and begin to understand why an answer is correct. Involving frequent, low-stakes assessments to guide their performance during the course of the semester provides a very flexible system for evaluating performance, keeps students engaged in the class, and may reduce in the way anxiety before infrequent, high-stakes tests. We intend to explore how to apply effective question-design strategies to supervise students’ progress at different levels of the learning process, articulated in specified learning outcomes and skills: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, problem solving. SOME PRELIMINARY RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A preparatory experiencewas run last year (2007/2008), involving the design, implementation and assessment of three Moodle quizzes for Statistics, a compulsory subject taught at the School of Agricultural Engineering of Barcelona (ESAB) of the UPC. We created the quizzes to be used as a chapter checking after the accomplishment of each unit of content, hence involving self-assessment. From this first round experience we are now aware of all the data available for the teacher. By the end of the semester our students were asked to rate this activity. Not only did the student ratings turn out to be rather satisfactory, but student performance also showed a positive tendency. It is a great tool for assessing the reliability of the questions. All the statistical reports can be downloaded into Excel or a text file, rendering all the information easier to manage. The quiz module provides information of which items students got right and wrong, the number of quizzes that had been completed by students, attempt summary, individual responses, quiz results, and incorrect or partially correct responses. We believe that creating and implementing Moodle quizzes will serve to boost effectiveness and promote student performance, as well as change teachers’ and students’ attitude towards virtual campus Atenea, as promoting interactive and dynamic tools. However, it is essential to bear in mind that all the process should be permanently revised and updated. In this sense it was worth carrying out the preliminary experience described above, since it provided insights of the whole process. • WORK IN PROGRESS • Some items to be answered at the end of the project, when the analysis of the all data achieve have been performed: • Students’ opinion about the use of the different kind of quizzes in their own learning process. • Correlation between the scores of the quizzes and traditional or classical examinations. • Psychometric analysis, to check the difficulty level and the effectiveness in discriminating learners (or good-bad performers) of the quizzes involved. Acknowledgements. The financial support of the Institute of Education Sciences (ICE) of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) is gratefully acknowledged. • REFERENCES • Blanco M. & Ginovart M. (2008). La probabilidad y la utilización de la plataforma virtual Moodle en las enseñanzas técnicas dentro del marco del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. Libro de actas del XVI CUIEET. Universidad de Cádiz, Spain. • Cole J. (2005). Using Moodle. Teaching with the popular open source course management system. Sebastopol (CA): O’Reilly Community Press. • Heck A. & van Gastel L. (2006). Mathematics on the threshold. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 37(8), 925-945. • Moodle For Teachers, Trainers And Administrators. GNU General Public License Version 2, June 1991[ http://moodle.org/] • Smith G. H., Wood L. N., Coupland M., Stephenson B., Crawford K. & Ball G. (1996). Constructing mathematical examinations to assess a range of knowledge and skills. International Journal for Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 27(1), 65-77.