When I was a University student (previous century :-) ) I took a course in electronics which included a two-hour weekly lab. There was a prerequisite for students: we needed to answer three fundamental questions related to the lab session before we could proceed with the lab exercises. If we failed half of them, we were out; should have gone back, studied for the lab, come back again next week to re-do the test and the lab. Very simple, ahh!!
Shhh! Don't tell anyone ... I failed once!... and it was rather embarrassing to leave all my co-students in the lab who watched me getting out of the lab!!
I thought I might be more generous to my students. Give them a pre-lab test but allow them to participate in the lab session, no matter how they perform! Of course, I have other tools in my possession rather than a piece of paper. And that's a Virtual Leaning Environment (in our case MOLE).
My unit (Logic Programming) has theory (1 hour) and lab (2 hours) weekly classes. Having presented the theory, students get into the lab to perform programming tasks. And here is where the test comes into play. MOLE (as most of the VLEs) have a tool for creating a pool of multiple-choice questions, combine them to compile self-assessment tests in various ways and assign points to each answer.
In addition, MOLE gives lecturers the option to have a Learning Path, that is, to arrange tasks (such as tests) and material (such as ppt, docs, links etc) in a sequence so that students complete one before being able to do the next ones.
So, for each lab session, I ask students to get into their learning path and complete the next task. Obviously, this task is to take the self-assessment test I have prepared in advance. Students assess their knowledge by answering the questions and getting immediate feedback from MOLE (i.e. the correct answer). It is only when they complete the test that are required to download the theory ppts and the lab handout with the exercises. They don't need to pass, they are only required to complete.
The advantage for the lecturers is that they can monitor the progress of understanding of the concepts introduced. MOLE offers a tool which presents statistical information for each individual students as well as for the group overall. So, having looked at the results immediately after the test, I could go next to each student who seemed to have issues and sit together for a while elaborating and explaining certain things.
It worked very well. You could try it with theory lectures too, before students download your weekly notes. All you need is to prepare ten sets of 3-5 multiple choice questions each. You will do it once, then you have it for a long time. As a final note, the performance of the students in these self-assessment test is an excellent predictor for the their performance in the final exam.
Petros Kefalas
Computer Science Department
Shhh! Don't tell anyone ... I failed once!... and it was rather embarrassing to leave all my co-students in the lab who watched me getting out of the lab!!
I thought I might be more generous to my students. Give them a pre-lab test but allow them to participate in the lab session, no matter how they perform! Of course, I have other tools in my possession rather than a piece of paper. And that's a Virtual Leaning Environment (in our case MOLE).
My unit (Logic Programming) has theory (1 hour) and lab (2 hours) weekly classes. Having presented the theory, students get into the lab to perform programming tasks. And here is where the test comes into play. MOLE (as most of the VLEs) have a tool for creating a pool of multiple-choice questions, combine them to compile self-assessment tests in various ways and assign points to each answer.
In addition, MOLE gives lecturers the option to have a Learning Path, that is, to arrange tasks (such as tests) and material (such as ppt, docs, links etc) in a sequence so that students complete one before being able to do the next ones.
So, for each lab session, I ask students to get into their learning path and complete the next task. Obviously, this task is to take the self-assessment test I have prepared in advance. Students assess their knowledge by answering the questions and getting immediate feedback from MOLE (i.e. the correct answer). It is only when they complete the test that are required to download the theory ppts and the lab handout with the exercises. They don't need to pass, they are only required to complete.
The advantage for the lecturers is that they can monitor the progress of understanding of the concepts introduced. MOLE offers a tool which presents statistical information for each individual students as well as for the group overall. So, having looked at the results immediately after the test, I could go next to each student who seemed to have issues and sit together for a while elaborating and explaining certain things.
It worked very well. You could try it with theory lectures too, before students download your weekly notes. All you need is to prepare ten sets of 3-5 multiple choice questions each. You will do it once, then you have it for a long time. As a final note, the performance of the students in these self-assessment test is an excellent predictor for the their performance in the final exam.
Petros Kefalas
Computer Science Department
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