Learning through Doing with LONCAPA

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Learning through Doing withLON-CAPA

• Ray Batchelor
• Veselin Jungic
• Faculty of Science
• Simon Fraser University

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Agenda

• Introduction (V. Jungic)
• Demonstration Lon Capa The Learning Online
  Network with CAPA (R. Batchelor)
• Discussion

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Facts

• Three calculus courses
• Class size 200 700
• 1200 students altogether
• Numbers
• Ten weeks
• One assignment per week
• Twenty questions per assignment

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Problem

• Mark
• assignment questions in three months.

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BIG Problem

• Find resources to mark a quarter of one million
  assignment questions per semester.

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Solution

• TA spends 1 minute per assignment
• Collecting assignments
• Marking 1 question per assignment
• Recording marks
• Returning assignments
• Marking
• 3 marks for handing the assignment in
• Up to three marks for the marked question

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Cost

• 1200 students x 10 assignments x 1 minute
• 12000 minutes 200 TA hours
• More importantly Students do not get the right
  feedback about their work

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What To Do?

• Options
• Give up on marking assignments?
• Keep the status quo?
• Ask the Chair for more money?
• Or

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Go Online

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But Where To Go?
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LonCapa

• Open Source Distributed Learning Content
  Management and Assessment System
• Sharing and using online learning and assessment
  materials across institutions and disciplines.
  Now.
• http//www.lon-capa.org/

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PH GradeAssist

• Developed by Prentice Hall
• Disciplines Chemistry, Physics, Engineering,
  Math, Statistics
• http//www.prenhall.com/phga/

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iLrn

• Developed by Brooks/Cole
• iLrn is an integrated testing, tutorial, and
  class management system.
• http//bca6.brookscole.com/fp-what.html

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Lyryx

• Lyryx Learning Inc. ("Lyryx") is a Canadian
  corporation specializing in the design,
  development, and delivery of e-learning
  solutions.
• http//lyryx.com/

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Maple TA

• Maple T.A. supports complex, free-form entry and
  intelligent evaluation of responses, making this
  system useful for mathematics, science, or any
  course that requires mathematics.
• http//www.maplesoft.com/mapleta/

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Features

• Browser-based interface
• Question banks
• Self created/ Shared/ Provided
• Different types of questions
• Algorithmic multiple-choice, true/false,
  fill-in-the-blank, essay, numerical, formula,
  randomly labeled, graph
• Automatically graded assignments
• Gradebook
• Communication Tool

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Benefits

• We have demonstrated that networked tools can
  complement traditional teaching methods to
  enhance learning and improve efficiency while
  establishing and maintaining high performance
  standards. Motivated students have clearly
  benefited as they have taken advantage of the
  learning opportunities made possible by this
  technology.
• E. Kashy, at all Melding Network Technology with
  Traditional Teaching Enhanced Achievement in a
  500-Student Course, Chapter in "Interactive
  LearningVignettes from America's Most Wired
  Campuses", edited by David G. Brown, p. 51, ISBN
  1-882982-29-0, Anker Publishing Company, Boston
  (2000)

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Improved Exam Performance

• D. Kashy, G. Albertelli, E. Kashy, M.
  Thoennessen, Teaching with ALN Technology
  Benefits and Costs, Journal of Engineering
  Education, October 2001,pp. 499-505

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Improved performance especially of female students

• Grade distribution for male and female students
  for a two-semester course (Phy231 and Phy232).
  Phy 231 was taught the traditional way and in
  Phy232 CAPA was used.
• D. Kashy, G. Albertelli, E. Kashy, M.
  Thoennessen, Teaching with ALN Technology
  Benefits and Costs, Journal of Engineering
  Education, October 2001,pp. 499-505

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Challenges

• One of the most significant challenges of
  implementing ALN technology in the classroom is
  the preparation and testing of questions and
  problems.
• One issue that we need to continue to address is
  the negative impact of student-created cheating
  web sites
• Another challenge is the need to develop
  improved discipline-specific standards
• D. Kashy, G. Albertelli, E. Kashy, M.
  Thoennessen, Teaching with ALN Technology
  Benefits and Costs, Journal of Engineering
  Education, October 2001,pp. 499-505

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SFU Experience

• Lon Capa/ Capa
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Mathematics
• PhGradeAssist
• Mathematics

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Students Are Happy

• This is the best method of submitting homework.
  It makes students keep up to date with the
  material, and the discussion below each question
  helped me understand a lot of them better.
• Survey performed in 2003-3 for SFU Chemistry
  120/121

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And No So Happy

• Q What particular aspects of online assignments
  were the most frustrating?
• A Entering the answer in the correct form.
• Survey performed in 2003-3 for SFU Math 151/152

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Survey of Gen Chem Students Dec 2003
LON-CAPA

• On-lineSurvey
• In-classSurvey

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If you could change one thing about the LONCAPA
homework, what would that be?
LON-CAPA
General Student Comments 70 very favourable
25 neutral 5 unfavourable

• 30 would change very little or nothing.
• 25 easier questions / more like the exams
• 15 more hints, conditional hints, text refs
• 10 more tries
• 7 change due dates in some way
• 5 browser issues
• 4 no multi-part, single-submission questions
• 3 more marks/effort

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Roles
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Nav Chem122
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Remote Functions
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Feedback and Discussion
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LON-CAPA
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VSEPR
VSEPR Theory
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Click on Image
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Authoring Problems
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CSTR Space
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Problem Templates
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Edit Template
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Position Labels
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Newly Created Problem
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Checking Randomization
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lnK vs 1/T
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lnK vs 1/T Question
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Printouts
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CHRT
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Submissions
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Learning On-line Network
Resource Space
Resource Assembly Tool
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Hardware and Support
LON-CAPA

• Library Server Purchased May 2001, dual 1GHz
  IBM
• http//dalton.chem.sfu.ca Netfinity x340,
  1 GB RAM, 3x18.2 GB Raid
• 2 Access Servers Purchased March 2003, each
  dual 2.4 GHz lewis and nernst
  Xeon cpus, 4 GB RAM, 1x120 GB Drive
• Chemistry Servers housed in ACS main vault and
  fully supported.
• Martin Siegert Systems Administrator, Research
  Computing
• SFU
  Academic Computing Services (ACS)

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How to find out more.

• http//www.lon-capa.org
• batchelo_at_sfu.ca