Background

1. PATTERN OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT WITH ON-LINE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT.Martin Sellens, * Nicola Billam and Caroline Angus. Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences and * Learning and Teaching Unit,University of Essex. Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ Background • Formative and summative assessment supports learning but is resource intensive, particularly when class sizes are large. • Many first year Sports and Exercise Science students have a weak background in the core life-science disciplines (e.g. Anatomy and Physiology; Cell Biology; Biomechanics). These are information dense and have a specialised vocabulary. • We use end-of-module multiple choice examinations as 1/3 of the assessment mix to test recall and basic understanding. • We obtained HDTL-5 funding (the SPRInTA project) to develop differentiated on-line formative assessments, providing instant feedback, to enable the students to review their learning throughout the module and prepare for the examination. • Here we present example data from one Anatomy and Physiology module that illustrate that most of our students use the facility strategically for last-minute revision. Fig 3. Assessments attempted during the week preceding the summative examination. Fig 1. Example of a ‘basic’ question from the topic area ‘Endocrinology’. • Methods • Module banks of >300 MCQ questions (with feedback) were written in QuestionMark Perception. • Questions were differentiated into three levels of difficulty; basic (see figs 1 and 2) intermediate and advanced. • Progression between levels was permitted when students scored >80%. Sub-sets of questions covering discrete topic areas were released at ~fortnightly intervals upon the completion of the topic (e.g. The skeleton. Muscles). • Students were alerted to question release using the VLE and could log on to attempt the questions at any time until 1 h before the summative examination. Fig 2. Response and feedback. Fig 4. Assessments attempted during the 24 h preceding the summative examination. • Outcomes • For the 6 weeks of teaching prior to the revision week, on average 64±46 assessments were attempted. • In the revision week 631 assessments were attempted with 328 attempts on the day prior to the summative examination (Fig 3). • Peak time for engagement with assessments was 16.00-02.00 on the evening before the examination (Fig 4). • Our students use formative assessment principally for last minute revision. Wrong answer. Endocrine cells are secretory. Into which fluid compartment do they secrete? Acknowledgement This work was supported by an FDTL-5 grant from the Higher Education Funding Council