Chrissi Nerantzi Academic Developer Manchester Metropolitan University, UK @chrissinerantzi

ILTA141 Introduction to Learning, Teaching and Assessment

Haleh Moravej Senior Lecturer in Nutrition Science Manchester Metropolitan University, UK @halehmoravej

Chrissi Nerantzi Academic Developer Manchester Metropolitan University, UK @chrissinerantzi

source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Moofushi_Kandu_fish.jpg

#ILTA141 Assessment and feedback

•Purposes and principles of assessment, including the MMU regulatory framework •Practical marking activity inc. writing feedback •Using assessment and related feedback to develop practice

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Why do students need to be assessed?

Why do students want feedback? Ask

them!

Task: Ask students, capture their responses and come back in 5 minutes

PBL

Grown since 1960s pioneered at McMaster University http://www.mcmaster.ca/home.cfm

with medical students (Howard Barrows) Strong evidence that it works well!!! Whole university approach: Maastricht University http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Main/AboutUM.htm http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Main/Education/EducationalProfile/ProblemBasedLearning.htm

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moving away from… towards…

Traditional lecture

Small group learning

Subject based

Problem based

Competitive learning

Co-operative earning

Can be used: •Face-to-face •Blended •Fully online

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Why PBL?

• Developing ‘skills’ and subject specific reasoning skills

• Learning takes place in ‘context’ for students

• Self-directed learning is promoted

Savin-Baden (1996)

source: Busfield, J & Peijs, T (2003) Learning Materials in a Problem Based Course 6

PBL, a curriculum design approach

• Problems embedded in scenarios

• Students discover problems

• Learner ownership

• In small groups (PBL tutorials)

• Search for solutions

• PBL tutor

content ill-structured

scenarios/triggers threshold concepts

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problems as triggers

• Authentic, genuinely problematic

• Trigger learning

• Media

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Challenges

• Resource intensive

• Stressful for staff and students

• Time intensive (Des Marchais, 1993)

• Covering less curriculum content 80% (Albanese and Mitchell, 1993)

• Scenarios too ill-structured: students disorientated (McLoughlin & Oliver, online)

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process: the FISh model (Nerantzi & Uhlin, 2012)

stage 1: Focus

stage 2: Investigate

stage 3 : Share

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FISh (Nerantzi & Uhlin, 2012)

Step 1: Focus What do we see? How do we understand what we see? What do we need to find out more about? Specify learning issues/intended learning outcomes! Step 2: Investigate How and where are we/am I going to find answers? Who will do what and by when? What main findings and solutions do we/I propose? Step 3: Share How are we going to present our findings within the group? What do we want to share with the FDOL community? How can we provide feedback to another group? What reflections do I have about my learning and our group work?

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Roles

I facilitate team meetings/tutorials, stimulate debate

make sure that everybody is participating and that

the PBL process is used. I also co-ordinate learning and tasks

(who does what and by when)

I record what is said/agreed during

meetings, record any issues summarise and

synthesise

I share/read the problem scenario,

draw attention to key elements of

the scenario

I keep track of time during

meetings/tutorials, remind team

members how much time is left

I facilitate the PBL process and

reflection, ask open questions. I need to remember to step

back and not lecture!

(part 1) “Just finished marking 150 essays, the one and only assignment for this challenging module. Can’t understand why students don’t do well! Is one essay too much? I have been using this essay title for the last 10 years – I love it! – and students just don’t seem to engage with it, not even the brighter ones, which is really strange! I have given the students an extensive reading list and during the lectures I always tell them that they can ask me if they don’t understand something. Not sure what I am doing wrong… Students have never complained about anything and the module evaluation is always positive. They had a whole month to write the essay… but I know that many just do it a few days before the handing in date. At least they hand it in I guess. (part 2) Writing feedback is hard work too! I don’t know these people. I see them 2h a week over 10 weeks and there are 150 of them in the lecture theatre, well they are usually not all there. I find it really time consuming to write feedback on their assignments. I tend to write loads and tell them what they did wrong. That should be useful for them! But I am actually not sure if they read it. Most of them just see the mark and don’t bother collecting the feedback. Am I wasting my time?” Please investigate the above carefully. Identify possible problems, then define your learning outcomes. Carry out research to resolve the issues identified. You will be asked to present your findings to another group and engage in a conversation about these. Please work together and apply the Mills 5-stage PBL model in your investigation. Please remember that you will be working together. Co-ordinate team activities and assign roles, such as chair, reader, scribe and timekeeper. A PBL facilitator will help you to get started. Please also access the online PBL resources to familiarise yourself further with PBL. Ask your facilitator if you are unsure about something. You are welcome to use some of the resources made available and identify further ones for your research.

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critique

“Solange arrives at her English university. She is a keen student and wants to do well. After a few weeks, she is asked to write an assignment. When she sits at her computer, she finds that she can only think of the complex ideas she has grappled with on the course in her mother tongue, which is not English. It is an enormous strain to write these ideas and she cannot think directly in English. She has to translate her thoughts one by one. When she gets the essay back, she is extremely disappointed with her mark. She is used to excellent results. Some of the feedback relates to her use of English and is very discouraging. Her tutor has written: ‘There are hints of some interesting ideas in this essay but they are often difficult to understand because you do not express them clearly. Please check your English carefully before you hand in your work There are too many errors here.’” (Duhs, 2010, 6)

Discuss the feedback. Try to redraft it so that it feeds forward and helps Solange to feel less apprehensive about her next essay.

references

Albanese M A & Mitchell S (1993) Problem-based learning: a review of literature on its outcomes and implementation issues. Acad Med, pp. 68: 52-81.

Barrows, H S (2000) Problem-based learning applied to medical education, Southern Illinois School of Medicine: Illinois

Des Marchais, J E (1993) A student-centred, problem-based curriculum: 5 years' experience. Can Med Assoc J, pp. 1567-1572.

McLoughlin, M & Darvill, A (2007) Peeling back the layers of learning: A classroom model for problem-based learning, in: Nurse Education Today , 27, pp. 271-277.

McLoughlin, C & Oliver, R (online) Problem-based learning (PBL):Developing learning capability through the WWW, available at http://elrond.scam.ecu.edu.au/oliver/docs/99/ODLAA.pdf [accessed 11 February 2011]

Mills, D (2006) Problem-based learning: An overview, available at

http://www.c-sap.bham.ac.uk/resources/project_reports/ShowOverview.asp?id=4 [accessed 5 March 2010]

Savin-Baden, M, (1996) Problem-based learning: a catalyst for enabling and disablling disjunction prompting transitions in learner stances? Ph D thesis University of London. Institute of Education

Woods, D R (1994) How to Gain the Most from PBL, Hamilton: McMaster University

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