Reminder...
UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE STATISTICS SEMINAR SERIES
www.herts.ac.uk/business/staff_public/nhspencer_public/seminars
Sponsored by Department of Statistics, Economics, Accounting and
Management Systems, Business School, University of Hertfordshire.
Wednesday 15th January 2002, 2:30pm, room R9, Hertford campus
(Please note campus location and change of room)
Chris Ricketts (University of Plymouth)
Title: "Using Computer-assisted Assessment to Improve Student Learning
of Statistics"
Abstract:
"The greatest amount of statistics teaching in UK universities is
'service' teaching in support of other disciplines such as Biology,
Business, and others. Students in these disciplines frequently comment
that they did not come to university to study statistics and fail to
engage with the subject. A number of strategies to improve student
engagement, and hence their learning, have been tried (e.g. Redfern,
1999).
Students are increasingly driven by assessment (Brown, Race & Bull
2000) and so we have tried to increase the frequency of assessment to
improve student engagement. Because of the large numbers of students
in these other subject areas, this needs to be done efficiently.
Computer-assisted assessment provides a potential solution.
The University of Plymouth took a strategic decision to make
computer-aided assessment available across the University. This talk
will first look at a number of success factors that have been
identified during the introduction of computer-aided assessment.
We have used frequent on-line assessment in service teaching of
statistics to students of Biology (typically over 200 students) and
Business Studies (typically over 300 students). We have carefully
monitored both student performance and undertaken student evaluations.
We have found that student performance and the acceptability of
on-line assessment can both be affected by the on-screen presentation
(Ricketts & Wilks, 2002). However, when the on-screen presentation is
good, student acceptability is high (over 80% prefer on-line
assessment) and there is some evidence that performance is improved,
as noted by Charman & Elmes (1998) and Sly & Rennie (2000).
We have modified the way in which computer-assisted assessment is
integrated into the learning process and environment, and this talk
will discuss the impact of these changes."
Forthcoming:
Wednesday 5th February 2002, 2:30pm, room tba, Hatfield campus
Catriona Queen (Open University)
Title: "Modelling a Traffic Network"
For further information regarding location, parking, etc.,
please contact Neil Spencer (details below).
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Dr Neil H. Spencer
Senior Lecturer in Statistics
Head of Statistical Services and Consultancy Unit
Statistical Services and Consultancy Unit Address:
Lindop Building, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield Campus,
College Lane, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, U.K.
Telephone: +44 (0) 1707 284366
Fax: +44 (0) 1707 284799
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
WWW: http://www.herts.ac.uk/business/centres/sscu
Departmental Address:
Dept. of Statistics, Economics, Accounting and Management Systems,
Business School, University of Hertfordshire, Hertford Campus,
Mangrove Road, Hertford, SG13 8QF, U.K.
Telephone: +44 (0) 1707 285529
Fax: +44 (0) 1707 285489
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
WWW: http://www.herts.ac.uk/business/staff_public/nhspencer_public
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