Talk:Survey research and design in psychology/Assessment/Quizzes

Student feedback 2010

In the 2010 open-ended Unit Satisfaction Survey (USS) comments, quizzes were mentioned twice in response to "best aspects" and six times in response to "needs improving". These student responses are quoted below, with emerging recommendations for 2011 summarised.

Best aspects

1. "Regular quizzes were a great motivator for continuing textbook-reading and revising lecture material."
2. "quizzes (helped me to stay on top of the cumulative lecture material)"

To improve

1. "Have online quiz topics in the same week as the topic is covered in the lecture. This will help reinforce learning."
   • Response: Agreed - quizzes in 2011 will be open for three weeks each.
2. "i would prefer a mid semester exam to the quizzes each week. and cover half the topics in that and the rest in the end of semester exam"
   • Response: This could be done. However, opinion seems to be in favour of regular quizzes rather than a mid-semester and end-of-semester exam.
3. "the weighting of the quizes each week were worth very little however did provide constant feedback. Maybe make the results/answers avaliable for longer after the quiz is finished i.e. can be put back up once the quiz is closed for the possibility of being graded"
   • Response: The quizzes were worth little in order to provide regular feedback whilst minimising stress/pressure (of large assessment weightings). Ongoing access to quiz responses seems to be the most requested change - see recommended changes.
4. "The quiz's were a very stressful experience that I believed did not reflect the content in the lectures or the readings (which were difficult to understand at the best of times). I believe that weekly quiz's are a good idea HOWEVER only the best three marks should count to the overall grade (like experimental psychology). There are some weeks that unforeseeable circumstances may occur and may force students to miss a quiz or the content is beyond comprehension... We should have the ability to be able to revise the weekly quiz's especially when you don't achieve a high mark in them. It is pointless only being able to view your answers immediately after completing the quiz and hoping that the screen doesn't turn off."
   • Response: It is hoped that the stress is kept low by having the quizzes worth relatively little (2% each). Students will be given three weeks instead of one week to prepare for the quizzes and it will be explained more clearly up-front that quiz responses will not be available after the quiz closes in order to encourage appropriate note-taking for future study purposes. Quiz items will be improved by adding more detailed feedback on right and wrong answers.
5. "The quiz questions were a little ambiguous sometimes- the lecturer made adjustments to allow for this but this required extra time and effort on both sides."
   • Response: Students who enquired about ambiguous or incorrect quiz questions were able to negotiate adjusted marks and improvements to the questions where appropriate. However, many students didn't have the confidence to do so. Quiz items will be revised to reduce ambiguity before being released in 2011.
6. "Quizzes – After the deadline, it would be good if quizzes were accessible for revision purposes (some students know how to take screenshots of the quiz before closing it and some don’t, so it creates an imbalance not having them accessible to everyone)."
   • Response: Students will be warned more clearly up-front that they cannot view their responses after the quiz results screen closes and that they they should therefore make notes for study purposes.

Recommended changes

1. Students would like their quiz responses to be available for review for longer, however this will not be permitted in order to minimise sharing of answers (cheating). Students will be warned more clearly, up-front that their answers will no longer be available once they close the results screen and to therefore take notes for personal study purposes.
2. Quiz questions and answers should be reviewed and revised with regard to:
   1. Clarity (ambiguity) of question wording and answer wording
   2. Relevance to lecture/reading (this may require revision of the lecture/reading rather than the quiz as appropriate)
   3. Adding more feedback about incorrect items, with links to more information, to help facilitate learning
   4. Expanding the number of items in the testbank (to minimise potential for copying/cheating)
3. Allow quizzes to be open for a longer (three weeks rather than a week), to help address the concern that "there are some weeks that unforeseeable circumstances may occur and may force students to miss a quiz" and to help improve the overlap between the lecture/tutorial content coverage and the quiz assessments.