Teresa Sancho-Vinuesa

Continuous Activity with Immediate Feedback: A Good Strategy to Guarantee Student Engagement with the Course.

This paper describes the experience of applying a new teaching strategy to a basic mathematics course at the Open University of Catalonia. This strategy requires students to engage with practice and assessment tests with automatic feedback. The main aim of this research is to look into the extent to which the key elements of this teaching strategy influence the students’ course completion and academic achievement. In order to achieve this purpose, qualitative and quantitative variables over one term have been measured weekly. Our findings suggest that this teaching strategy significantly reduced the number of students who dropped out and improved academic results. More specifically, regular practice activities at the beginning of the semester help to engage students in the completion of the course.

A Proposal for Formative Assessment with Automatic Feedback on an Online Mathematics Subject

This article presents a new teaching methodology implemented on a basic mathematics course for Engineering students at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). The experience of its implementation in the 2010/11 academic year is described and the results are discussed. This methodology is based on formative assessment. As well as doing the activities contained in the course materials, students take weekly practice and assessment quizzes and receive automatic feedback. Not only are they told whether their answers are correct, but they also receive suggestions and comments on the possible sources of their errors. The results suggest that this teaching methodology gives students the opportunity to regulate their own learning processes while allowing lecturers to identify and react to problems in a responsive, timely manner. They also suggest that it fosters interaction among students and between students and lecturers. Moreover, since the teaching methodology was introduced, the number of students dropping out of the subject has fallen considerably.ResumenEn este artículo se presenta una nueva estrategia docente en un curso básico de matemáticas para estudiantes de ingeniería de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya; se describe la experiencia de su implementación en el curso 2010–2011 y se discuten los resultados obtenidos. Esta metodología, basada en la evaluación formativa, se concreta en la realización semanal de cuestionaries de práctica y de evaluación con feedback automático, además de la realización de actividades propias del material del curse. En la retroalimentación del sistema, ne solamente se informa de la validez de la respuesta, sine que se proporcionan sugerencias y cementarios del posible origen de su errer. Per un lado, les resultados obtenidos sugieren que la metodología docente implementada da a los estudiantes la oportunidad de regular su propio proceso de aprendizaje y al profesorado, la posibilidad de detectar problemáticas y reaccionar con agilidad; por otro lado, fomenta las interacciones con contenide matemático tanto entre estudiantes como entre estudiante y profesor. Además, con esta estrategia docente, el númere de estudiantes que abandonan la asignatura se ha reducido notablemente.

Indicadores de calidad pedagógica para el diseño de un curso en línea masivo y abierto de actualización docente

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have generated high expectations and revolutionized some educational practices by providing open educational resources for reference, usage and adaptation; therefore, their pedagogical quality is often questioned. The objective of this study is to identify indicators related to pedagogical, functional, technological and time factors in order to assess the quality of the MOOC entitled “Liderazgo en gestión educativa estratégica a través del uso de la tecnología” (Leadership in strategic educational management through the use of technology), offered as a teacher training program through Coursera to 10.161 participants. Via the Delphi method, a group of 55 experts agreed that time is a key factor to be considered in the design of learning activities. It was concluded that without measuring results, the success of a MOOC could not be evaluated; thus, institutions and consortia must establish evaluation indicators to focus their efforts on the enhancement of pedagogical quality. By providing relevant information, the learning potential of educational resources based on connectivism principles can be evaluated, and so can the quality of MOOCs. The goal is to contribute to a vision of a future in which everyone has access to a world-class education.ResumenLos cursos en línea, masivos y abiertos (MOOC) han generado importantes expectativas y han revolucionado algunas prácticas educativas, al ofrecer recursos educativos abiertos para su consulta, uso y adaptación; sin embargo, con frecuencia se cuestiona su calidad pedagógica. El objetivo de este estudio es identificar indicadores relacionados con factores pedagógicos, funcionales, tecnológicos y de tiempo, para evaluar la calidad del MOOC Liderazgo en gestión educativa estratégica a través del uso de la tecnología, ofrecido como recurso de actualización docente en Coursera a 10.161 participantes. Mediante el método Delphi, un grupo de 55 expertos acordó que el tiempo es un factor clave a considerarse en el diseño de las actividades de aprendizaje. Se concluye que sin medición de los resultados no se puede valorar el éxito de un MOOC, por ello instituciones y consorcios deben establecer indicadores de evaluación para enfocar sus esfuerzos para la mejora de su calidad pedagógica. Si se proporciona información relevante se podrá evaluar el potential de aprendizaje que poseen los recursos educativos basados en principios conectivistas y reconocer la calidad pedagógica de los MOOC, con el objetivo de coadyuvar a la visión de un futuro en el que todos tengan acceso a una educación de clase mundial.

Feedback by automatic assessment systems used in mathematics homework in the engineering field

This research presents the results of the teaching innovation Dynamic Online Assessment System in Mathematics, which is implemented in higher education to promote self‐study by students outside the classroom. The WIRIS calculator was integrated into the Moodle platform to create questions with random elements, for example, students had access to different variants of the same question. The effect of the type of feedback (immediate or deferred) on the work of the students on the platform, measured by means of participation, time spent, and grades obtained, was evaluated. We used a quasi‐experimental methodology for a population of 5,507 students, distributed in 229 courses on four campuses that learn Mathematics I in engineering programs. Immediate feedback exhibits better work of students on the platform, but this work is not necessarily more efficient in comparison with the work performed by students using assessments online assessment with deferred feedback.

Exploring the effectiveness of continuous activity with automatic feedback in online calculus

Academic results in mathematics subjects in engineering, especially those taught online, are poor. The key contextual elements of an insufficient level of prior knowledge, poor motivation, and the intrinsic difficulty of the subject matter has led to the review of the study materials and the creation of a methodology based on continuous assessment with automatic feedback at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. The main objective of this article is to present evidence of improved learning outcomes with the application and use of WIRIS quizzes as an automatic assessment tool in calculus subjects. To that end, we carried out descriptive research with an ex‐post‐facto design, based on statistical analysis of the results for continuous assessment and students’ grades in 11 semesters. The new strategy has been applied in the last two academic years, based on introductory Moodle lessons and assessment with interactive questionnaires. The data obtained are inconclusive: In the first two semesters that the methodology was implemented, the results show a noticeable improvement in several key aspects, such as undertaking and passing the continuous assessment and improved results across the spectrum of grades. However, in the last two semesters, the results are generally similar to those obtained with the old methodology.

Exploring the Efficacy of Practicing With Wiris-Quizzes in Online Engineering Mathematics

The use of online self-assessed questionnaires Wiris-quizzes as formative assessment tool is an increasingly widespread practice in a variety of subjects in higher education. Some previous studies have examined the impact of such questionnaires on learning outcomes in classroom environments or hybrid teaching. This paper presents an exploratory study that proves that in a course of mathematical analysis in a completely online environment, practices with Wiris-quizzes improve learning outcomes. We have conducted an ex-post facto research from the results of the practice tests and continuous assessment tests carrying out an analysis using the trimmed means Yuen’s test.