At a recent LTSN Physical Sciences seminar, at the University of Bath, Keith Adams from the University of Ulster, talked about using Computer Aided Assessment as part of teaching and learning. Keith has been incorporating CAA into his teaching and students' learning for about 5 years, delivering online assessments via Questionmark Perception. To learn more read on. Keith explained how he uses CAA for practice questions and fornightly summative questions. Instead of having traditional lectures, he hands out lots of supporting materials and then uses his student contact time to focus on extended problems. Part of the aim of Keith's use of CAA is to change the distribution of student effort from the mass cramming at the end of term to a more even spread throughout the course - thus allowing both tutor and student to identify weak areas more quickly while they are relevant. The FAST project (Formative Assessment in Science and Technology) has explored this in greater detail.
Keith went on to explain how he has used Questionmark Perception and showed some imaginative questions including some such as drag and drop Venn diagrams, drawn from Effect Practice on Objective Assessment, a LTSN Physical Sciences Guide by Alex Johnstone.
Keith's LTSN material is available to UK HEIs on request. Details can be found via the University of Ulster's CAA web site.
