e-assessment (f)or learning

Day 9. Using STACK to write questions to assess maths.  There may or may not be nine ladies dancing, but there is certainly one female blogger who would happily do a little dance around her house this evening. I’ve managed to prise another few hours this afternoon to write another STACK question and I am oh so happy with the result. I feel a bit embarrassed to be writing about STACK and, yes, it did take me several hours to write one question. I am a real beginner, standing on the shoulders of giants (Chris, Tim, Phil – that’s you). In writing STACK questions I am having to learn STACK, learn Maxima, learn Moodle, learn LaTeX, and – as I get onto questions that assess rather more maths than basic differentiation – I will be having to dig deep into my memory (and revise from the module materials which the questions are designed to support) from the days, something approaching 40 years ago, when I might have described myself as a mathematician. But I am loving every minute of it. (more…)

At 7am yesterday I was sitting at my computer, head-set on, for the Transforming Assessment webinar about STACK, led by Chris Sangwin in Birmingham, via Australia…(hence the early start).

STACK will be released in December as a Moodle question type, but it has been around for a while. STACK (System for Teaching and Assessment using a Computer-algebra Kernel) is an eAssessment system for mathematics and related subjects, with computer algebra (Maxima) at its heart. For those of us at the OU wanting to increase the use of good eAssessment in maths and physics, we have been waiting a long time for this moment – and I’m sure the same is true elsewhere. Chris commented yesterday that computer algebra is essential (and that regular expressions are wholly inadequate) for this sort of assessment. I’m not sure I’d go quite that far, but we have been bashing our head on a brickwall somewhat, having to think of every way students might legitmately write an expression. 

Aside of the advantage that computer algebra brings,  STACK appears to be a very well thought out system and I am looking forward to using it. Mind you, I think  I will be on a steep learning curve as I start writing questions in the coming months.

There is a recording of yesterday’s webinar at http://bit.ly/TA7N2012