All entries for March 2006

Make yourself a Flickr logo

Writing about web page http://metaatem.net/words/

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: 20 Mar 2006 13:51 |  Tags: Bagatelle |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Pi in the Sky?

Follow-up to Come to lunch … from Computer-aided assessment for sciences

Around 30 of us joined forces on Tuesday (World Pi Day)

in search of the CAA Grail, a package that truly delivers all the assessment needs of scientists and mathematicians. Our quest may have fallen short, the chalice may have been chimerical, but we travelled hopefully in the company of Maple TA, WeBWorK, STACK and Mathletics, and I will discuss them each in turn in later blogs.

Meanwhile, here are some snaps of the fine company.

"World Pi Day" on 3/14 (transatlantic terminology) was celebrated by no less an authority that Radio Four's Today Programme. Marcus du Sautoy kept things in proportion by misremembering pi's third decimal digit and telling John Humphrys that, had humans evolved with four digits on each hand, we would probably have been celebrating the occasion three days earlier — in base 8 notation

: 16 Mar 2006 14:15 |  Tags: CAA Meeting |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

RU Autistic? The Eyes Have It

Writing about web page http://www.centralquestion.com/archives/2006/03/mind_reading_test.html

Try this test (it takes about 10 mins). It is created with the elegant Flash-based software Question Writer — see my earlier blog.

: 03 Mar 2006 17:03 |  Tags: Bagatelle CAA Software |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Surprising Statistic

Writing about web page http://mathstore.ac.uk/articles/maths-caa-series/feb2006/

Imagine a test with 5 questions, where each question is selected randomly from a bank of 10 related alternatives. Some 100,000 different tests can be generated.

Question: How many of these would you need to generate, on average, to have sight of all 50 alternative questions?

Answer: Only 43 (Douglas Adams was one out).

This surprising fact should give pause for thought to an author of online exams concerned about cheating. One of my favourite models for driving learning through assessment is to offer students a number of attempts (say 5) at randomly-generated tests in formative mode before they take the one that counts for credit. In the given example, 10 students colluding could suss out all, or most of, the questions stored in the banks before they take their summative test.

: 03 Mar 2006 16:18 |  Tags: CAA Cheating Pedagogy Software |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem