Brett Bligh

Formative computer based assessment in diagram based domains

This paper presents an approach to conducting formative assessment of student coursework within diagram-based domains using Computer Based Assessment (CBA) technology. Formative assessment is perceived as a resource-intensive assessment mode and its usage is in steep decline in higher education. CBA technology developed out of the desire to automate assessment due to the necessity of assessing students with decreasing unit-resource; it can overcome the decline in formative assessment by automating those processes which are considered resource-intensive.The system described is based upon the CourseMarker CBA system (formerly CourseMaster / Ceilidh) and the DATsys object-oriented framework for CBA-oriented diagram editors. This paper outlines requirements for obtaining good formative assessment using CBA software and documents a live system which assessed student Entity Relationship diagrams within an undergraduate Database Systems course. Results are presented and considerable extensions proposed.

Doing Learning Space Evaluations

In this chapter we argue that evaluating learning spaces is a valuable activity that can generate operational insights into how physical space affects learning, and can thus feed into processes of learning space design. The broader context is a desire to improve learning by designing better spaces within post-compulsory education.

Activity theory in empirical higher education research: choices, uses and values

This paper contributes to discussion of theory application in higher education research. We examine 59 empirical research papers from specialist journals that use a particular theory: activity theory. We scrutinise stated reasons for choosing the theory, functions played by the theory, and how the theory is valorised. We find that the theory is usually chosen for its direct empirical applicability; used for abstraction, explanation and contextualisation; and valorised for apprehending complex situational dynamics. It is rarely chosen to challenge conceptualisation of the research object; used to establish investigative paradigms; or valorised in ways that implicate wider bodies of knowledge or potential theory development. We argue that higher education researchers should reconsider how their application of activity theory is interwoven with interpretative processes, how the theory might frame research design rather than simply data analysis, and how they account for the range of roles that the theory actually plays across research endeavours.

The Change Laboratory in Higher Education : research-intervention using activity theory

Abstract In this chapter, we discuss the Change Laboratory as an intervention-research methodology in higher education. We trace its theoretical origins in dialectical materialism and activity theory, consider the recommendations made by its main proponents and discuss its use in a range of higher education settings. We suggest that the Change Laboratory offers considerable potential for higher education research, though tensions between Change Laboratory design recommendations and typical higher education contexts require consideration.

Authoring diagram-based CBA with CourseMarker

The CourseMarker system has been used to assess free-response computer based assessment (CBA) exercises since 1998. The aim of the studies reported here was to evaluate the feasibility and usefulness of developing and deploying diagram-based exercises using DATsys, an authoring environment for diagram-based CBA, together with CourseMarker. Postgraduate students constructed diagram-based exercises in four domains. The process of constructing the exercises was captured as an indicator of feasibility. The exercises were then used to assess two cohorts of undergraduate students. Instruments including system submission logs and student questionnaires were used to assess usefulness. Findings indicate that there is considerable potential for the assessment of free-response domains such as diagrams. Such an approach can help students as part of an iterative process of learning by allowing repeated submission of coursework, which may be most appropriate within a formative assessment context. The exercises are popular with students and demonstrate a gradual, though decelerating, increase in marks over subsequent submissions. The techniques are reliable, but further development allowing for alternative model solutions and assessment of the aesthetic appearance of diagrams would increase validity. Our techniques and findings are novel for CBA, and have implications for the increasingly important research area of formative assessment.

Affordances of presentations in multi-display learning spaces for supporting small group discussion

Learning and teaching is often supported using presentation software to display pre-authored slides in sequence over time. We wish to consider the pedagogic implications of Multi-Display Learning Spaces (MD-LS), where multiple partitions of presented information overlay a larger area within the physical environment. We discuss the use in university teaching of the Multi-Slides plug-in for popular presentation software, along with multiple projectors, to cascade multiple slides of information simultaneously across two walls of a seminar room. We use examples derived from postgraduate teaching to argue that MD-LS allow for enabling juxtapositions of visual materials -- such as evidence, results, conceptual frameworks and task specifications -- which can be used by students and tutors as cognitive tools to promote reasoned, argumentational dialogue. We consider the spatial implications for learning, and relate MD-LS to attempts within the literature to conceive classrooms of the future.