Activities, assignments and assessment/Quizzes that promote engagement



Janelle Page, Di Hughes, Nivan Weerakkody, Terri Meehan-Andrews, Yossi Rathner's presentation for AAAOpenConf2013

As part of a subject redesign in first year first semester physiology taught to allied health students, weekly pre-workshop quizzes, as homework activity, were introduced. These test were intended to encourage students to attend class prepared to engages in active, team based learning tasks of the workshops. In 2012 these test were written by faculty and delivered to students via LMS. In 2013, licence to proprietary software was purchased, and quizzes were delivered to students via this package. Survey of students in both 2012 and 2013 both demonstrated that students found the pre-workshop quizzes were effective tools for motivating students to “stay up to date” with the subject content, and prepare for their workshops. Data from each year demonstrate that students did not find the weekly quizzes onerous or time wasting. Persistent criticism from students in 2013 of the proprietary software was a perceived disconnect between the quiz questions and the material taught in class (lectures or workshop activities), despite the alignment of the questions to published learning objectives. Further, students reported that unlimited and unrestricted attempts at quiz questions were demotivating factors in the learning experience. Although no statistical difference was observed in the final marks between the two cohorts, students in 2013 performed worse on the final exam than the 2012 students, indicating weaker mastery of subject content.