Elearning and Assessment in Sports Science

1
E-learning and Assessment in Sports Science
Delivering electronic assessment and tailored
tutorial support through a student portal the
SPRInTA project. Nicola Bryan, SPRInTA Project,
University of Essex.
2
Overview of the Project

• Student Portal Resources for Innovative Targeted
  Assessment.
• Funded through the Higher Education Funding
  Council for England (HEFCE).
• FDTL-5.
• November 2004 October 2006.
• Dr Martin Sellens (Director).
• Nicola Bryan (Project Officer).
• Ben Steeples (Technical Officer).

3
What is SPRInTA?

• Unfavourable staff/student ratios-affecting
  support on assessment and feedback given.
• Sports Science 8 staff 75 undergraduates per
  year-9.4 students per member of staff.
• Large classes.
• Lots of marking.
• National Student Satisfaction Survey Essex-low
  score on quality and time for turnaround of
  feedback.

4
What is SPRInTA?

• Support student assessment by providing
  formative, targeted and personalised online
  support for assessment.
• Facilitate independent study and self assessment.
• On completion-15 Sports Science/Biological
  Science courses will be able to access a suite of
  online self assessment exercises and tutorial
  guidance.
• All of these resources will be linked through the
  myEssex student portal.

5
How?

• SPRInTA will design and develop online
  self-assessment and tutorial guidance for five
  types of assessment common to Sports Science
  students
• Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs).
• Short answer and essay style practice
  examinations.
• Data Analysis Interpretation.
• Practical Coursework (worksheets).
• Reporting in Scientific Paper Format.

6
Progress to Date

• The MCQ section is nearly complete.
• Currently working on the other sections.
• MCQs
• Provided/ing online MCQ formative assessments for
  8 Level 1 modules.
• 300-600 formative Multiple Choice Questions
  (MCQs)-using QuestionMark Perception, linked into
  the portal.
• Split course material into week blocks and
  release after final lecture of the week.
• Tiered difficulty of questions.
• Summative Exam Online.

7
Demo

• https//www.essex.ac.uk/myessex/

8
Data-for completed modules

• 85 of students have used the resource.
• 26 assessments completed per student.
• Significant improvement in summative MCQ exam
  results from previous year (plt0.001 t-test).
• Apart from 1 course, significant positive
  correlation between the number of formative
  assessments a student completed and their
  summative MCQ exam score (plt0.05).

9
Student Behaviour
Fig 1 Number of formative assessments completed
per week for the formative assessments
10
Student Behaviour
Fig 2 Number of completed assessments by hour in
the twenty-four hours leading up to the summative
exam.
11
The practice MCQs were a useful revision tool
(It) made revision far less tedious
12
Using the practice MCQs left me feeling prepared
for the final exam
The practice questions were a good indicator of
how hard the final exam questions were going to
be (very!!)
13
Online practice MCQs should be made available to
all 1st year modules
The questions are great and helpful and should
definitely be made available for other modules
14

• Its very convenient for me as I'm an
  unorganized person. Therefore having the practice
  MCQs online will prevent me from losing them.

15
Future Work

• Finishing MCQ section.
• Encouraging uptake throughout term.
• Scheduling
• Weighting?
• Interoperability.
• Dissemination.
• Complete the other sections!!!

16

• QUESTIONS?
• Contact
• E-mail sprinta_at_essex.ac.uk
• Tel (87)4369
• Web http//www.essex.ac.uk/sprinta/
• Presentation can be found at http//www.essex.ac.
  uk/sprinta/publications.htm