Using WebCT Quizzes & Surveys to Implement a Team Approach to Learning Statistics

Gary Cziko [email: g-cziko@uiuc.edu]

Educational Psychology

Brown Bag Seminar, College of Commerce and Business Administration, Office for Information Management, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 2001/04/09

• 0. Setup
  • Web-connected computer with projector
  • open IE and Netscape
    • Netscape: designer access to WebCT EdPsy 290
    • IE: student access to WebCT EdPsy 290 and these notes
  • open link to this outline

• I. Overview
  • Teaching goals
  • Using WebCT for teaching elementary statistics
  • Applications to participants' teaching goals
  • Next steps
  • Questions and discussion

• II. Teaching goals
  • Survey of participants' goals
  • My goals
    • Learning
      • make students more active learners
        • reduce role of lectures
        • use cooperative learning
      • use quizzes as learning activities in addition to assessment and evalution
    • Student assessment
      • formative assessment of student learning
      • reduce or eliminate manual grading of quizzes, tests and projects
      • facilitate student record keeping
    • Course evaluation
      • facilitate student feedback on
        • general organization of course
        • specific course activities

• III. Using WebCT for Elementary Statistics (EdPsy 290 and 390)
  • A. WebCT
    • CT = course tools
    • provides Web environment for
      • *** quizzes
      • ** surveys
      • * communication (email and bulletin boards like WebBoard)
      • (course content)
      • (presentations)
    • since Fall 1999 WebCT supported on campus by Center for Educational Technologies

• B. EdPsy 290/390: "Elements of (educational) statistics"
  • Course organization
    • meets in Oregon computing site with computer for each student [DEMO photo]
    • five cycles consisting of [DEMO calendar]
      • 1. lectures/demos
      • 2. study plus practice quizzes
      • 3. team-assisted quiz (teams of 3 or 4 students)
      • 4. team project
      • 5. student course evaluation
      • 6. individual quiz
    • final exam

• Applications of WebCT
  • 1. lectures/demos
    • limited use of chat
  • 2. study plus practice quizzes
    • multimedia ActivStats lessons
    • unlimited practice quizzes [DEMO WebCT Student IE]
      • unlimited access (time & place)
      • question sets of 5 parallel items
        • one item chosen randomly for each practice quiz
      • immediate full feedback after quiz submission [DEMO WebCT Student IE]
  • 3. team-assisted quiz (teams of 3 or 4 students)
    • 1. team works on quiz
      • each team has same items in different random order
      • open book, team discussion, questions
    • 2. immediate limited feedback and team discussion
    • 3. individual retakes same quiz (same items in new random order); grade counts
      • open book, no team discussion, questions
  • 4. team project [DEMO WebCT Student IE: Project 1]
    • completed in class over over 2-4 meetings
    • analysis of a real data set and answering WebCT "project quiz"
    • "project quiz" can be quit and completed later (each answer saved individually)
    • both m-c and instructor-graded questions
    • immediate full feedback after quiz submission
  • 5. student course evaluation (survey) [DEMO WebCT Student IE]
    • anonymous (except for completion)
    • ratings scales and open-ended comments
  • 6. individual quiz
    • can be repeated 3+ times
      • closed book, no team discussion, questions
    • in class or office hours (password controlled)

• Quiz options
  • control over quiz using settings [DEMO WebCT Designer NS]
    • time available
    • how much time allowed
    • password control
    • repeats
    • scoring
    • feedback

• Feedback
  • from course to students [DEMO WebCT Student IE]
    • immediate feedback on all quizzes with built-in comments
    • immediate feedback on projects with built-in and custimozed comments
    • overall performance
  • from students to instructor [DEMO WebCT Designer NS]
    • quiz item anslysis -> indicates what should be reviewed in class
    • overall performance
    • survey results

• IV. Applications to participants' teaching goals
  • DISCUSSION: How could you use WebCT's tools to accomplish your teaching goals?

• V. Next steps
  • find out more about WebCT
  • request course account from CET
  • attend CET workshops on WebCT
  • see me [email: g-cziko@uiuc.edu]
  • obtain support
    • Educational Technologies Grants
    • Teaching Advancement Grants
    • your College resources (e.g., ATT Fellows program in College of Education)

• VI. Questions and discussion