Moodle quizzes to improve learning in

large first year laboratory classes

Elizabeth Angstmann, First Year Physics Director

Russell Waldron, Educational designer

Julian Cox, Associate Dean (Education)

The Problem in general

Large student numbers (1600 in semester 1)

• labs must run efficiently,

• if students finish late it disadvantages students in the next class

When preparatory work was in the lab manual

• Students would copy each other

• Students came unprepared for class

• Demonstrators mark preparatory work in lab rather than helping students

• Safety induction talk given 17 times during first week by one staff member

The solution

Students complete prework online before coming to class

Prework consists of reading over the lab manual, watching a video, a few additional

resources and then a prework test.

The test counts as 25% of their lab mark, each test is 0.5% of their total physics mark,

students get helpful feedback as they complete the test; formative assessment.

The test shuts down as soon as their lab session starts (group overrides)

Safety induction moved online, video and then a test

What it looks like

Rotational Inertia

Rotational Inertia

Rotational Inertia

Behind the scenes….

Settings

Interactive with multiple tries: 2 hints for each question

Students see

Calculated question type

Woops!

Behind the scenes… Calculated question

Students see

Cloze (multianswer) question

Woops!

Behind the scenes…Cloze (from Pool)

Edit quiz

Does it work?

Students feel that they are better prepared for class

Demonstrators report that the labs run much more smoothly

The number of labs running overtime has been reduced

Random numbers mean that even if students get help they need to enter it into their own

calculator, reduced plagiarism

Further efficiencies in the lab

Rubric for each

exercise:

Demonstrators enter marks into GoogleDocs

Tried Moodle but too slow….

Lab technician uploads marks to Moodle after each lab

Current limitations of

Moodle

A pendulum is located on Mars/Jupiter/Saturn…

Mars/Jupiter/Saturn has a mass of ….. kg and a radius

of …. m.

What is g on Mars/Jupiter/Saturn?

___________ ms-2

What is the period of a spring on Mars/Jupiter/Saturn

with a spring constant of …. N/m with a hanging mass

of …. kg attached to it?

___________ s

What additional mass would you need to add to

double this period?

___________ kg

Question types are fairly

limited.

Can not easily ask questions

like:

Trials (soon)

• Drag-and-drop marker

• Electron pushing

• Multipart questions (or STACK)

• Mindmaps

• WIRIS STEM questions

Wish list

• Draw a vector

• Drag, drop, rotate and resize a shape

• Bookmark a segment and area of

screen in a video

• Conditional upon current score

New question types of interest

Trials (soon)

• Learning analytics

• iPad and mobile platform

• Multitouch interface

Wishlist

• Branching - or sharing questions with

Lesson tool

• Clean Single-question mode

Future Quiz developments

The future of online quizzes at UNSW

Blended Learning institution: Moodle augments campus experience.

Ask questions that enhance campus experience.

Capacity and track record for enhancements:

• Modular, Open Source software

• LMS provider relationship

• Institutional LMS Advisory group

• Faculty team: executives, academics, designer, technologist, programmer

• Faculty facilities: servers, access to live identities

• Moodle community: user-contributions