Computer Assisted Assessment for Final Examinations in Moodle

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• Computer Assisted Assessment for Final
  Examinations in Moodle
• Dr Chris Louca Dr Maurice Faigenblum
• Eastman CPD

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• Topics
• The course
• Our concerns
• Our attempt at a solution
• Details
• Student feedback
• The future?

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• The Programme
• MSc in Restorative Dental Practice
• 5 year programme
• 1 year Certificate
• 2 year Diploma
• 2 year Masters
• Flexible and part-time study while working
• Designed for General Dental Practitioners

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• The 1 year Certificate
• 28 days of attendance
• 64 graduates
• Two modules covering the following subjects
• Operative dentistry
• Endodontics
• Periodontics
• Removable prosthodontics
• Implantology

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• Recent conversion of the Restorative Dental
  Practice programme from a CPD based course into a
  UCL MSc required formal summative assessment
  examination
• Varied assessment regime including
• unseen examination
• logbook of practical work
• 2 essays

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• The problem
• 2007 examination used a short answer format
• Ten questions were set per paper (X2)
• 1280 answers had to be double marked by
  predominantly part-time teachers
• Time consuming slow
• Limited window of time available for marking
• Delayed release of graduate marks
• Inefficient

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• The Solution
• A more efficient method demanding less of staff
  time was required
• UCL CALT Academic Development Grant - Funding to
  develop an online, Moodle based end of year MCQ
  examination
• Collaboration with Rosalind Duhs (CALT) and Fiona
  Strawbridge and colleagues (Learning Technologies
  Support Service LTSS, Information Systems)

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• Details
• Five busy part time specialist course leaders
  were to be expected to produce a number of MCQs
  relevant to the course and its reading material
  in a relatively short time!

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• Details
• We were fortunate to have available several
  hundred MCQs published by the American Dental
  Students Association. The relevant sections were
  extracted from the books. These subjects were
  relevant to the two modules that make up the
  Certificate in Restorative Dental Practice.
  Permission was obtained from the ASA to make use
  of their material to which we made our own
  additions.

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• Details
• Using photocopies, Drs. Wey Ming Tay, John
  Bradley and myself spent two days extracting
  questions from the sections that were relevant to
  the course and updating them. Ms Rebecca Tay and
  myself uploaded these questions in Word, using
  OCR. This process was very time consuming

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• Details
• The problem that arose was that one cannot upload
  Word into Moodle and the thought of transferring
  800 plus questions by keyboard was daunting.
• Rosalind Duhs brought to our attention Respondus,
  a program that allows Word documents to be
  uploaded and then via WebCT to be transferred to
  Moodle.

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• Details
• It was decided that each of the two modules would
  be tested with 40 MCQs the questions being
  proportionate to the subjects covered.
• Questions were sent to each course leader the
  external examiner for their final approval

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• Details
• When the replies were received two Moodle quizzes
  were set up.
• As we were not conversant with the system this
  was a steep learning curve but a great deal of
  help was given and gratefully received from
  Rosalind Duhs and Matt Jenner.

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• Details
• The use of the transatlantic material had alerted
  us to styles of MCQs that were not commonly used
• We decided to set a mock paper using fun
  questions but set with a mixture of the run of
  the mill and more complicated styles.
• This was available on line for the graduates to
  attempt in their own time.
• This was well received by the graduates

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The Examination

• December 2008
• Two 1 hour papers with 40 MCQs
• One examination for each each module
• 61 students attended over 3 adjacent cluster
  rooms
• Moodle login required
• Invigilators present
• Immediate student feedback online questionnaire
  (95 response rate)

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• Exam results feedback
• 85 candidates passed
• Feedback questionaire
• Some examples of questions

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• Conclusion
• Our experience of a CAA based summative
  examination approach for this type of course
  suggests that it is a good way of testing
  professional knowledge
• Most learners and teachers appreciated this
  method of summative assessment

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• The Future
• To use the same Moodle based approach in 2009
• To extend our bank of MCQ type questions for this
  and other programmes of study at Eastman CPD
• To investigate the use of different styles of MCQ
  type questions
• To introduce a series of MCQs within Moodle to be
  used as formative quizzes throughout the course

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Thankyou for listeningc.louca_at_eastman.ucl.ac.uk
m.faigenblum_at_eastman.ucl.ac.ukand our gratitude
to the teamRosalind DuhsMing TayJohn
BradleyFiona StrawbridgeMatt JennerJessica
Gramp