• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
 
Web 2.0 technologycase study
1
Case study title
Assessment 2.0: Wikipedia writing projects
Author’s name
Alan J. Cann
School /Department
Department of Biology
Institution
University of Leicester
Background
 The School of Biological Sciences at the University of Leicestercomprises four academic departments: Biochemistry, Biology, CellPhysiology and Pharmacology, and Genetics, with some 85 academicstaff in total. In operational terms for undergraduate teaching, thesefour departments act in a federal manner with a Board of Studiesforming the heart of the structure. The annual quota undergraduateintake into the School is 165 students, divided between the 10programmes.Each of the undergraduate programmes has specific sets of Aims andLearning Outcomes (as detailed in Module Handbooks andProgramme Specifications) but the School also has generic aims forits degree programmes:
•
Flexible programmes of high quality, informed by an activeresearch environment in which students develop their owninterests;
•
 A stimulating and supportive working environment;
•
 An education that will enable graduates to follow a variety of careers, including higher degrees and research.
and to enable students to:
•
Have a broad appreciation of Biological Sciences and advanced knowledge of one or more areas, includingappreciation of aspects of the underpinning research;
•
Develop subject-specific knowledge with practical and transferable skills.
All the degree programmes follow a similar pattern. Initially there isa common core to the programme, for the Biological Sciencesstreams this represents the whole of the first year and covers thebreadth of the subject in 9 x 10 credit modules, from molecularbiology to populations dynamics. The year also includes modules inStudy and Communication Skills, IT and Numeracy Skills forBiologists and Chemistry for Biologists. For the ‘Medical’ streams thecore only lasts for the first semester and then the students start tomove towards their specialist routes. For these degrees the studentstake some of the modules from the Biological Sciences stream andsome specific modules closely related to those in the MBChBprogramme and there are also skills courses, similar to those takenby the Biological Sciences students.In the 2nd year, the Biological Sciences students can choose from awide range of modules, with only one module, Research Skills, beingcore. The modules chosen allow the students to start specializing inone of the areas of Biological Sciences. In their final year thatspecialization is normally continued, resulting in the award of one of the named degrees (though students may opt to retain a broad
1
This template is based on Centre for Bioscience templates and the JISC Effective Practice with e-learning project(http://www.elearning.ac.uk/news_folder/innoprac).
 
dimension to their programme). The modules chosen in the finalyear normally have 2nd year pre-requisites, thereby ensuring a clearpath of progression. The "Medical" degree students likewise followtheir specialist routes in the 2nd and 3rd years but have significantlyless flexibility, in keeping with the more specialist nature of theirprogrammes. All final year students also undertake an independentresearch project, which is worth 40 credits.The University provides extensive on-campus and off-campuscomputing facilities available to all students, with an ever increasingnumber of computers available across the campus and in the halls of residence. Wireless access facilities are currently being rolled outacross the campus. Off-campus computing services available to allstaff and students from any location with internet access includeaccess to email, data storage and information services such asLibrary facilities and online journals and access to the Blackboardvirtual learning environment (VLE).The School has been very pro-active in developing its teaching via anumber of routes. This has been highlighted through a number of internal and external indicators. For example, the School has beenvery active in the development of Blackboard VLE uptake across theentire University. Also involving Blackboard, the School undertookthe first extensive pilot within the University of Leicester of theTurnitinUK plagiarism detection service and is now using the systemfor all work submitted by students.
The challenge
In discussions with colleagues at Leicester and from otherinstitutions, it became clear that many had previously tried to usevarious learning technologies to facilitate student attributes such asreflection (Kolb, D.A. 1984 Experiential learning: Experience as thesource of learning and development. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs,NJ), and to assess skills beyond the basic “knowledge” competencein Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives (Bloom, B.S. (Ed.)1956 Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Handbook I, cognitive domain. Longmans, NewYork). As with my own previous experiences, most of theseattempts had been unsuccessful for a variety of reasons. Thepredominant cause of failure was perceived to be the unwillingnessof highly goal-directed science students to engage with what wasseen as a frivolous activity not directly related to assessment.Although students performed well in traditional assessment taskssuch as in course essays, the process of producing the work wasmechanical and repetitive. Students who performed below the normadmitted that they would put off preparation and writing of essaysuntil the last possible moment before the submission deadline.Students also complained about the workload of producing multiplesubstantive essays for more than one concurrent module, and of thepressures induced by concurrent deadlines. Research in the Schoolof Biological Sciences failed to substantiate the issue of clashingdeadlines, so this complaint appears to be more one of perceptionthan reality, probably induced by the tendency to leave writing untilthe last minute. For academic staff, marking a large pile of lengthymodule essays and the need to return feedback to students promptlyafter the submission of in course assessments also induced stress.
Intendedoutcome(s)
The introduction of a new assessment format aimed to:
•
Vary a pattern of weekly online assessments and preventfeelings of repetition and fatigue.
•
Motivate and enthuse students by allowing choice of topicsthey write about (within the overall context of the module)and the knowledge that their work would be visible by thewider academic community.
•
Promote engagement and reflection with the subject matter
 
and hence to assess skills beyond the basic “knowledge” competence in Bloom’s taxonomy.
•
Harness the knowledge and enthusiasm of the wideracademic community by "crowdsourcing" part of the task of assessment while still retaining overall quality control throughmonitoring and moderation of marks awarded(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing; The Wisdom of Crowds. James Surowiecki, Anchor, 2005. ISBN:0385721706).
Establishedpractice
 To attempt to alleviate some of the problems associated withassessment and to try to make full use of the communicationsfacilities offered by a VLE, the course essay in a final year biologicalsciences module was abandoned and replaced by a series of weeklyassessments delivered and assessed online. In the first year of thetrial, this consisted of eight weekly overlapping assessed onlinediscussion groups (Cann, AJ, Calvert, JE, Masse, KL, Moffat, KG.Assessed Online Discussion Groups In Biology Education. BioscienceEducation E-Journal 8 2006http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/journal/vol8/beej-8-4.htmaccessed 21.11.07). Although this was generally successful and wellreceived by students, one issue which became apparent from bothanalysis of access statistics and from student feedback was evidenceof fatigue and loss of interest during the latter half of the eightweekly online assessments, causing a "low point" in contributions tothe online discussions. This observation suggested that a change inthe online assessment format midway through the module mightinject new enthusiasm.
The plan
Prior to the commencement of any online discussions, the entireclass engaged in an "e-tivity", an icebreaker to promote groupcohesion (Salmon, G. 2002 E-tivities: The key to active onlinelearning. Kogan Page, London). In this module, this took the form of each student constructing of a homepage on the VLE to introducethemselves to other module participants. To accommodate the newform of assessment, the online assessed discussion groups in thesecond half of the module were replaced with a weekly online writingtask utilizing Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org). The onlinediscussion boards remained available to students throughout theentire module, although contributions were no longer assessed afterthe weekly Wikipedia exercises began, but were used to facilitateand support students during the Wikipedia assessments.Students were introduced to Wikipedia in an hour long face to facedemonstration and discussion session. They were advised aboutregistering as a users on the Wikipedia site so that theircontributions could be tracked via their username and the Historytab on the pages they had contributed to. They were advised to usea pseudonym for registration if they wished to remain anonymous,an option which the majority elected to take. For the assessmentitself, students were told that they would be required to make aweekly contribution to Wikipedia, and that a minimal acceptablecontribution for credit was:
 A total of at least 200 words on any topic covered on this modulewith appropriate references which survives substantially unaltered (not including minor edits and vandalism) for at least one week after the original posting date. You must contribute to a different page(URL) for each of the weekly assessments - you will not receive any marks if you submit the same page you submitted in a previousweek.
The students were also explicitly warned about the dangers of 
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...