Go directly to: Minute Papers

PLU CREU PROJECT
Electronic Assessment Tools for Introductory Computer Science: Enabling Feedback from the Laboratory to the Classroom

Participants:

General Project Description:

The goal of this project is to create a set of electronic assessment tools for introductory computer science labs. These tools will be based on Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) [Angelo & Cross, 1993], effective tools that allow instructors to obtain ungraded, anonymous, feedback from their students in order to assess how well or how much they have learned. Our tools will facilitate a "feedback loop" from introductory computer science labs to the classroom, allowing instructors to effectively address any questions or misunderstandings generated during the lab session. We will adapt CATs developed for use in the computer science classroom [ http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/deibel/CATs/], implementing electronic versions to assess specific laboratory learning objectives, and providing an electronic summary of their results for the instructor.

Pilot project:

A pilot project was conducted at PLU during spring 2004 to investigate the usefulness of the Minute Paper CAT [1] for CS2 labs. The Minute Paper is a simple, general purpose CAT that asks students to answer some variation of the following two questions:

  1. "What was the most important thing you learned during today's session?"
  2. "What question(s) remain uppermost in your mind?"

In an anonymous mid-semester survey, 82% of the CS2 students agreed or strongly agreed that the Minute Paper feedback was beneficial. We also observed that students using an electronic version of the Minute Paper gave longer and more detailed responses than those using a pen and paper version. However, for some lab assignments, the general questions asked on the Minute Paper only provided superficial assessment of students' learning of specific concepts. Using the same CAT each week also appeared to become monotonous, as evidenced by the occasional trivial or silly response from students, especially later in the semester. The current project should provide for more accurate assessment through the use of targeted CATs and reduce student boredom by using several types of CATs throughout the term.

Specific Questions/Hypotheses (to be addressed):

  1. Do electronic CATs improve student learning in introductory CS labs?
  2. Which electronic CATs are most useful for students and instructors?
  3. How much instructor time is required to respond to the CATs? What form do those responses take (email, forum postings, class discussions)?

more to come...