Version
1.0 (June 2008) : pdf version
Getting started:
- Email us and get an account. We
will assign you a user name and password that will enable you
to create questions, assign them to courses/groups, and code
answers.
- Click on the "Ed's Tools II" link at the top of the
page or go
directly
Thinking about a question:
- The second step is to decide which area of student
thinking you are probing. Then you can compose
questions to pose to your students. It is probably
reasonable to begin with two to three questions at most.
- As you see the responses, you are likely to find that some
questions provoke what we would classify as "knee-jerk" reactions. The
answer can be quite sophisticated, but actually fail to address
the question asked. It is therefore often reasonable
to plan for a two-pass analysis. See what
the answers to the first set of question bring, and then modify
them to provoke a more informative response
- A valuable strategy is to generate questions that are unlike
what students are used to seeing on tests. As
an example, when we ask students "what is diffusion and
why does it occur?" we get answers that do not actually
mention molecular motions. If we ask students "how
does a molecule find an enzyme?" we find various "mechanisms",
although rarely random thermal motion.
Adding and assigning a question:
- Within Ed's Tools: click on "create question"
- Add your question in the text box; images can be uploaded using
the "browse" button
- Assign your question to a subject area using the "list
of subject" menu; when you are done, click "submit" -
your question will be assigned a number.
- If you subject area is not already there, you can add it. Click
on the "administration" button and select "Concept
Subject Manager"
- Add your subject
- You can also link your subject to your new question on
this page.
- Return to the administration page, click on "School/Class
management"
- On this page you can, add a school, add a class associated
with that school
- Once your school/class has been added, find it below and
associate your question to that class.
- To alter the demographics page, use the "Add Association" section
and select the subject your questions are about. The
system is set up to always ask about mathematics background.
Capturing student responses:
- Students can answer questions through the bioliteracy.net web
page by clicking on the "Answer Questions" link,
or directly at https://solarsystem.colorado.edu/conceptInventories/external/bioliteracy.php
- Once at that page, they need to select their school and class.
- They will then see a demographics page; if you want to identify
students, have them put their name in the "Anything else
we should know?" box. We strip names away from
answers when coding.
Analyzing student responses:
- To analyze student responses, click on "java coder";
- Click file, then open/dialog select question to code; if you
want, you can increase font size.
- You can then highlight student language and mark, or set up
new categories. Highlight can overlap one another.
- Any number of coders can code a question. It is
worth deciding what categories you want to code. Typically
we overall coding under "concepts", "expertise", "linkage" or "misconceptions". Within
these categories, you can determine whether you are looking
at specific language or more generic bins, which can be sorted
out later in the analysis.
- You can download a list of concatenated answers using the "Concatenate
Answers" link or presented as a database using the "View
Concept Tagged Text" link (all on the administration page).
Building a concept test (coming in the future)
|