Author Archives: Sally Jordan

Correspondence tuition

At the UK Open University, the distinction between the formative and summative functions of assessment has always been blurred. This is because our tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) and computer-marked assignments (old-fashioned CMAs or modern iCMAs) frequently count towards a student’s overall … Continue reading

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What sorts of e-assessment questions do students do best at?

What do you think? Multiple choice? Short-answer free text?

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Peer assessment : is it better to give or to receive?

Listening to Patricia Cartney from Middlesex University speak at the Centre for Distance Education Conference last week made me think about peer assessment. Apologies to those who have been working in this area for year, my thoughts are probably terribly … Continue reading

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Flattery or feedback?

Reading this week’s New Scientist (23rd October 2010) on the train on my way to the Centre for Distance Education Conference in London yesterday, I found an interesting opinion piece from Clifford Nass ‘More than just a computer…’ The article … Continue reading

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Multiple-choice questions – love them or hate them

I seem to have spent quite a lot of time muttering about multiple-choice questions. You might be wondering what I have against them. It’s partly that students don’t really have to engage with the assessment process in as deep a … Continue reading

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Writing good interactive computer-marked assessment questions

I run a lot of workshops trying to help colleagues to write good e-assessment questions. There are usually lots of brilliant ideas in the workshop, but somehow we end up slipping back into using lots of multiple choice questions because … Continue reading

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Making independent learners

The first keynote at the Physics Higher Education Conference was given by Professor Derek Raine of Leicester University, who is perhaps best known for using problem based learning to teach physics and interdisciplinary science. Thinking about Derek’s work leads me to … Continue reading

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Extrinsic and intrinsic motivation

I’m now home and conferenced out (not helped by problems on the East Coast Main Line on Friday evening). The Physics Higher Education Conference (PHEC) (in Glasgow this year) was considerably better than when I first attended the event. Some … Continue reading

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Good posters at ALT-C

I was bowled over by two posters at ALT-C: Matt Haigh’s ‘Changing the way we see test-items in a computer-based environment: screen design and question difficulty’ (session 096)and Silvester Draaijer’s ‘Design of a question design support tool’ (session 148). Both … Continue reading

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Counting counts but syntax sucks

The quote I’ve used as the title of this post has been attributed to the late Professor Roger Needham at the University of Cambridge. I can’t believe I’ve been blogging for two months and am only now mentioning our work with … Continue reading

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