All entries for Tuesday 23 January 2007

Fit for Purpose?

Software for computer-aided assessment comes in many shapes and sizes serving many purposes, ranging from simple quiz-building to the construction of complex question templates involving random parameters that are designed to test deeper understanding and provide intelligent feedback.

It is evaluation time for the software we have be trying out in the Science Faculty at Warwick. Because my project is specifically aimed at science disciplines, we have concentrated the trials on four CAA packages with serious mathematical capabilities: Maple TA, Mathletics, STACK and WeBWorK.

In order to judge the merits of these behemoths, it is important to lay down the criteria we will use. I have therefore started to produce a list of features and qualities that might be considered desirable in CAA software of this kind. PLEASE ADD TO MY LIST OR SUGGEST AMENDMENTS.

I have set out the features and qualities under the following headings:

• Authoring
• Pedagogy
• User-experience
• Administration
• Data Security
• Robustness

I will deal with each heading in separate blogs for ease of digestion. Today I start with:

Authoring

• Ease of use (Ability to author questions in browser window, intelligent fully-functional editor (see Work-flow below), quick access to current projects, good GUI and navigation, natural syntax for writing questions, flexible file and folder structure for organising work, automatic save before closing browser, easy user account creation, spreadsheet import and export of both account and assignment data, optimised for accessibililty, re-usable user-created templates for (i) writing tests (ii) sets of properties and permissions.)
• Mathematics entry and handling (WYSIWYG maths editor for symbolic and mathematical expressions. GIF-free options – MathML, (La)TeX, or WebEQ with MathPlayer. Platform-independent visually-pleasing rendering of symbols with scalable fonts and colours. Tex quality for both rendering and range of symbols. Intelligent display of mathematical objects (e.g. polynomials).)
• Sharing questions and assignments/tests (Import/export of (i) questions created in same software and (ii) text from other applications. Compatibility with QTI and other interoperability standards. Control of permissions for other users,)
• Creating assignments/tests (Easy selection from question banks. Easy control of assignment delivery options (ability to permute questions, permute parts of MCQs, choose “single scrollable page” or “one question per page”. Full control over length of test, period of availability, user-access, feedback timing.)
• Work flow (WYSIWYG editor with (i) full features (e.g. find and replace) and (ii) instant rendering of modified entry. Cut and paste in all question fields (including mathematical expressions). Regular automatic-saving option. Control over time out. One-click question try-out.)
• Testing (Ability to try out questions and feedback exactly as it would be experienced by a user. Separate windows for question testing and editing. Debugging and comprehensive error-reporting.)
• Question, assignment and user tagging (Ability to create a number of database fields (e.g. level, topic, subtopic, creation date) for quick search and retrieval of questions from large banks. Likewise for retrieval of users from performance database.)

: 23 Jan 2007 15:01 |  Tags: CAA Computer Aided Assessment Software |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem