Quiz/Exams

Four exams or Five exams? Or: SOTL research needs controls!!!

Submitted by Rachel Smith on

About half of the points from my BIO181 class come from high stakes exams.  I feel this is necessary to prepare students for their STEM degrees, MCAT, PCAT etc. I split the course content into 5 units with an exam for each unit.  This means giving up 5 class meetings to exams, which for a TR class, is over 2 weeks of class time.   I tried dividing the content into 4 units, with 4 exams. The last 2 exams remained the same, but I took the content from the first 3 exams and split it between 2 exams instead.

Improvement in the classroom learning through voice threads and classroom activities (Nursing 152)

Submitted by Romanie Brooks-Dillon on

This assessment is to help with the concerns of the students overall learning objectives, test scores, application in the nursing clinical setting, and critical thinking knowledge. We attacked the problem by doing a classroom assessment of all 29 students. The outcome of the assessment showed that learning and testing was on a roller coaster ride. So we became innovated and created voice threads with power points to be done at home, and the classroom became the s environment for active learning.

This is not a drawing class! Graphing 3D

Submitted by Becky Baranowski on

Calculus III covers material from calc I/II, but in 3D.  One part of calc III is to graph in 3D.   A program called Maple is used to draw the graph, then students draw this on their exam.  For 6 years, a lecture approach was used to cover this topic.  Overall, students did not do well on this part of the exam (approximately C-D average).  Students had no comprehension as to why the graph looked the way it did and were not able to draw basic shapes.

Discovering Learning Gaps Using Online Homework Software

Submitted by Erik Huntsinger on

This semester I am assigning students online homework problems using Sapling Learning. After the due date expires, I plan to analyze which questions were most frequently missed.  Then I will bring these back as part of a study session prior to the midterm 1.  Similar questions will be restested as part of their midterm, and an analysis conducted to see if students' scores improved as a result of the feedback and additional practice in these areas.

Autobiographical Final Exam for ESL Grammar Students

Submitted by Laraine Bosse on

In ESL Grammar 2, I’ve offered a standard exercise final exam. The average 79% score was not acceptable. I developed a more authentic “end of the semester” way to bring together all the information offered in this grammar course. I assigned a guided autobiography.  At the class prior to the final exam, students were shown a presentation and given colored notecards.

White Cell Table

Submitted by Bronwen Steele on

Teaching immunology is very complex. Understanding what white cells do in fighting pathogens (disease organisms) is difficult for students. For several years I had students fill out a white cell table as homework - name of cell, function, and does it move in the body. I tell students to have it ready for the next lecture. I then have students write on a blank table on the board filling in info at the next lecture. I did not any assessment to see if this table worked.

Pretest Accounting Knowledge from ACC111 to ACC230

Submitted by Frederick Maihofer on

The accounting faculty has adopted a new text book for the accounting sequence ACC111-ACC230-ACC240.  All content is contained in one text, thus reducing the overall cost to the student.  A good deal of the basic content in ACC111 will be repeated in a condensed version in ACC230.  In order to determine the retention from ACC111 to ACC230 I am developing a pretest on Canvas to see what basic accounting knowledge will need to be highlighted during the first few lesson modules.

Team Collaboration in Discussion Boards

Submitted by Frederick Lee on

This is an online course with an emphasis on learning the principles of supervisory management in an organizational setting. The method of instruction and level of learning will be measured by the quality of the student’s responses on the Discussion Boards and their application of the principles of management. 

Will Increasing The Number of Practical Examples of a Difficult Science Concept Improve Understanding?

Submitted by Charles Bell on

Biology concepts like tonicity are difficult to grasp, especially for students in BIO100.Most students “get it” when a concept is applied to their lives. But the question is, will more practical applications translate to a better understanding of the concept?

No, you can't use your book for the quiz: Comparing quiz scores with and without class materials

Submitted by Norma Jimenez Hernandez on

I traditionally assess whether students are reading using a 10-question multiple choice quiz per chapter.  Students asked if they could use their notes and/or books.  I allowed students in my MWF PSY230 course to use their notes/books for the quizzes while those in the T TH  section were not allowed to do so.  I kept track of how long it took students to complete the quizzes and their average quiz scores over a ten week period.

Formative assessment & adaptive teaching with Kahoot!

Submitted by Cecilia Rosales on

Intervention background:

In my TTH hybrid class, students complete assignments every MWF. Some assignments include grammar video tutorials and questions based on the videos.  

In-class group work and HW scores told me students had mastered the use of double object pronouns.  However, students performed poorly (79.8% average) on the timed chapter exam (50 seconds per question).

Effectiveness of MST157DB

Submitted by James Wolfe on

In this CATS, I will attempt to assess the effectiveness of the newly created online class, MST157DB. This process will measure the students’ progress by administering a 10 question quiz in the first week of class on various key topics covered over the length of the semester. In the final week, I will once again administer the same quiz. The quizzes will be compared to ascertain if learning has indeed occurred.

OER Approach to ENH114

Submitted by Susan Malmo on

I developed ENH114 (African-American Literature) as an online course that uses primarily OERs (Open Education Resources, which are free, online resources that can be used and shared.)  I am interested in finding out how this approach works for students -- on the plus side, it will save them money and insure that they have access to course materials when they need them.  However, I want to see how the use of OERs seems to be going -- how effective this approach is, and whether there are any issues.

BIO 160 Common Lab Final

Submitted by Shannon Manuelito on

This semester I have developed a common lab final for the BIO 160 sections offered here at EMCC. This common final will incorporate laboratory activities performed during the semester and is a cumulative final. The common lab final should serve to support similar curriculum across across all sections offered here at EMCC. 

Results from this final will help me identify lab activies that need refinement as well as commonly misunderstood concepts from the class.