Rossiter and Biggs (2008) - Development of Online Quizzes to Support Problem-based Learning in Chemical Engineering

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Development of online quizzes to support problem-based learning in chemical engineering

Dr Diane RossiterDr Catherine Biggs

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Contents

• Why? - Background to implementation

• How? - Creating online quizzes

• Was it worth it? • A student’s perspective

• Our perspective

• Lessons learnt and future developments

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Why? Background to implementation

• Course aims – CPE1002

• Inquiry based learning format

• Need for online quizzes – CiLASS project

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Course Aims

CPE1002 aims to provide an introduction to the principles of chemical principles of chemical engineeringengineering through discussion of the chemical industry and the development and application of material balances over a range of equipment and processes.

CPE1002 is a core subject in Year 1.

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Inquiry/problem based learning• First implemented in 2005/2006

• Students not seeing the connection between core technical skills and chemical engineering practice

• Opportunity for change – Associate Prof Paul Lant (PAL) (University of Queensland)

• Increasing students numbers by x 2.5 (28 in 2003/04 to 70 in 2007/08)

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

What we tried to teach them• Core Technical skills

• Material balances, units, system boundaries etc• Dealing with uncertainty

• Personal Skills• Working and communicating in a group• Independent and self directed learning

• Transferable Skills• Technical reporting• Presentations• Communication

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

• Problem-based Tutorials (2 hours per week)• Group Assignments with real data, authentic,

not always one neat solution

• Lectures/Keynotes (1 hour per week)• Overview and introduction

• Directed learning

• Homework Sheets and Paper-based Quiz• Independent study and re-enforcement

major shift of focus

How we tried to teach them

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Typical format of a tutorial

1. Feedback on homework – small class, 4 staff using flipcharts located in different corners

2. IBL Activity – working in groups, typically prepare OHP with their proposed solution

3. Feedback on IBL Activity – whole class

4. Homework/Assignment – study time, queries

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Why introduce online quizzes?• Independent self assessment of core

skills – identify weaknesses and strengths

• Increase student’s confidence to actively participate in group work, multi-cultural

• Instant feedback and directed study

• Reduce staff marking loadCiLASS Project

CiLASS Centre of Excellence in Inquiry based learning in Arts and Social Sciences

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Contents

• Why? - Background to implementation

• How? – Creating online quizzes

• Was it worth it? • A student’s perspective

• Our perspective

• Lessons learnt and future developments

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Development of Online Quizzes• CAA not new (see HEA resources (Seale, 2002

– LTSN Generic Centre) for review• Variety of tools available from custom made

(e.g. E3AN project Question Buddy, ASTutE)• Generic quiz tools embedded within VLEs• Our choice – WebCT Vista Quiz Tool,

supported at institutional level with training.• 9 types of question styles – calculated, MCQ

etc

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Creating Quiz Content

• Mechanism with 6 step process using Respondus 3.5 as development tool

Reasons for choosing Respondus 3.5

1. Ease of use of interface, support available

2. Able to print databank of questions

3. Use of WORD templates

4. Publish to various VLEs including WebCT Vista

Respondus 3.5, http://www.respondus.com/products/index.shtml

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Figure 1 WORD file format for multiple choice style question

Title: Mixer Flowsheet2) Using the flowsheet for the mixer provided and assuming steady state conditions with no reaction occurring, determine the overall material balance and select the correct answer from the following options:@ For steady state conditions and no reaction, the overall material balance becomes: total mass flowrate IN = total mass flowrate OUT *a. A + B = P@ Correct.b. A - B = P@ Incorrect, B is an input stream.c. A + P = B@ Incorrect, P is an output stream.d. P + B = A@ Incorrect, B is an input stream.

Mixer

A (kg/h)

B (kg/h)

P (kg/h)

Not possible for

calculated style

questions!

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Our Implementation• A databank of 78 online quiz questions relating to

five core chemical principles topics was developed• unit conversions using the unity brackets approach (26);• mass to mole conversions (8); • calculations and definitions relating to material balances (13); • material balance calculations without reactions (20); and • material balances with reactions (11).

• Questions types included calculated, multiple choice, short answer, matching pairs, fill-in-the-blanks, true-false.

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Key stepsStep 1. Brainstorming core concepts and relevant Q’s

Step 4. Type question directly into

Respondus v3.5 e.g calculated

Step 2. Type question into MS

Word e.g. MCQ, T/F

Step 3. & 5 Combine in Respondus & preview

Step 6. Publish in WebCT & do

settings

Based on what students

found hard in the past

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Implementation into CPE1002• Available to students in self-test mode within WebCT Vista (2008) Published to coincide with relevant key note lectures.

• Feedback from individual questions directed to lecture notes and textbook

• Same databank of questions was also used for WebCT Vista Quiz (10%)• In Week 9, this online test was made available with a time limit

of 1 hour • The online test was released for 7 days and at the same time the

self-test quizzes were made unavailable. • Out of 70 students, 63 did the online test. • The average score for the online test was 8.3% (out of 10%).

Low marks for some due to not accessed self-test quizzes earlier and caught about by exactness of CAA responses required.

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Contents

• Why? - Background to implementation

• How? - Creating online quizzes

• Was it worth it? • A student’s perspective

• Our perspective

• Lessons learnt and future developments

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Was it worth it?

Student focus group

Student questionnaires

Project leaders’ interview

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Student questionnaire results1• To what extent has your use of online self-test

quizzes helped you …

Very much/

quite a bit

Some Very little

9. to develop core skills required for IBL actvities…

50% 31.5% 7.4%

1. End of semester 1 Feedback by Year 1 students, 15th Feb 2008, 54 responses out of 69.

1.8% didn’t know, 3.7% didn’t use and 5.6% gave no response

Total of 81.5%

quizzes had helped to

some extent in

developing core skills

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Student focus group2

2. Eight students – Interviewer R. Petrulis (CiLASS) 3rd March 2008

How about the online quizzes? What worked?

“They were beneficial because of the immediate feedback. With the homework, it took a week or so. The online quizzes also referred you to the book and page for more information. If you just get a grade, that’s meaningless.”

“Because you could access the quiz more than once, that made it really helpful for revision.”

A couple of you said you didn’t use the quizzes at all. Could you say why?

“I tried the quizzes a couple times, and they weren’t very hard. The homeworks were more challenging, and you could talk to the teachers about them. That felt so much more helpful.”

Did everyone else do the quizzes and the homeworks as well? [Yes.] Did you find that one was more useful than the other?

“The homeworks made us work hard, but the quizzes really helped us learn how to do the homeworks.”

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Project leaders’ Interview3

3. Interviewer – R. Petrulis (CiLASS), Interviewees – D. Rossiter and C. Biggs, 20 March 2008

BP: There were two responses (at focus group) that I got when I asked about the online quizzes. One was that the students found it helpful for learning the material and for revision. Another, smaller group, said they found them to be too basic.

CB: That was quite interesting.

BP: Those students said they preferred to do the homework.

CB: The point of the quizzes was to help those who needed the basics; not to challenge those who needed to be challenged, because the homework assignments were there to do that. I think this shows that we were right to set this up in the first place.

DR: It reinforces that you could describe something in three different ways and it would have meaning to different people. It’s not that the quizzes, assignments and homework cover different things—they don’t. They make it accessible to different types of learners. I think that was highlighted by what you got in the focus group.

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Contents

• Why? - Background to implementation

• How? - Showcase of online quizzes

• Was it worth it? • A student’s perspective

• Our perspective

• Lessons learnt, conclusions and future developments

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Lessons Learnt• Work as part of a team for creating quizzes it is

much better for beta testing, being creative in question development and support.

• 3 levels of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning can be achieved with careful choice of question styles (see Cullen and Fielding, LTU at MMU “MCQ’s – testing higher order skills”, 2007). Quiz worth (10%)

Level 1 Knowledge reproduction – True/false, matching pairs , fill-in-blanks

Level 2 Comprehension – MCQLevel 3 Application – calculated (invaluable for

engineering)

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Lessons Learnt (2)

• Homeworks (formative), IBL assignments (40%) and final exam (50%) test the students’ higher order levels of learning i.e.

Bloom’s Levels 4 & 5 Analysis and Evaluation

• Project time offset by saving time on Homework and paper-based test marking. Benefits likely to be more obvious in future years.

• Automated marking in WebCT Vista doesn’t allow for “marks for method”.

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Conclusions

• Majority of students helped in developing their core skills by using self-test quizzes.

• Staff also benefitted from developing own CAA skills!

• Some referred in reflective statements for 2nd IBL assignment that they accessed the quizzes repeatedly to help them solve the authentic problem!!

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Future Developments

• Develop databank of questions further.

• Disseminate quiz development mechanism to own department and get colleagues to engage in discussion about roll-out to other courses, if appropriate.

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Acknowledgements

• Paul Lant, University of Queensland

• Bob Petrulis, CiLASS, The University of Sheffield

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

2005/06 2006/07 2007/08

Resources CAB+PAL+1 CAB+DR+2 DR+3Students 66 67 70Lectures 1 hour 1 hour 1 hourTutorials IBL;

2 hrs, weekly

IBL;

2 hrs, weekly

IBL ;

2 hrs, weekly

Assessment

50% exam, 50% cwk

50% exam, 50% cwk

50% exam, 50% cwk with quizzes

Results:

exam fails15 (23%) 1 (2%) 4 (5.7%)

Department of Chemical and Process Engineering

Figure 2 Respondus 3.5 for multiple choice style question