Summary
Use of Myplace quiz as a revision tool for a final honours class.
Context
Risk Analysis, BSc Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science
Contact Details
Dr David Young
http://www.strath.ac.uk/staff/youngdaviddr/
Themes
Assessment and Feedback Faculty of Science
Rationale
Students in the BSc Mathematics and Statistics course have a compulsory class final honours class in Risk Analysis which builds on knowledge of basic probability theory taught in second year. We have found in the past that students do not retain this knowledge and considerable time is spent on revision at the start of the class to get participants up to speed with the required background knowledge. With the introduction of shorter teaching blocks next semester we decided to pilot the use of a Myplace quiz to see if this was a useful approach in ensuring that students were prepared with a fresh knowledge of prerequisites for this final honours class.
The Myplace quiz was set up as 13 multiple choice questions which students were invited to attempt prior to the first lecture of the class.
Successes
Students reported finding the quiz useful as revision tool rather than being told to revise all work from a previous class. The students were more prepared for the new work in their final honours course and had more realistic expectations of how the course would build on the previous work. Revision time was also significantly reduced from previous years and allowed more time to focus on the new material.
Challenges
It is necessary to ensure that students have access to their previous courses in Myplace where the material is available for them to revise for the quiz.
Scalability
97 students chose this class. The activity report in Myplace showed that this was one of the most viewed activities on Myplace for the class with 3317 views logged. The quizzes require no staff input in terms of marking and therefore is ideal for any number of students.
Suggestions for Transferability
This approach will be adopted by other classes in years 2-4 of the maths/stats degrees to reduce revision time at the start of each new class and better facilitate the new teaching timetables for 2016/17. Mathematics and statistics classes are unique in that each class offered builds on knowledge from prior classes so this is an ideal approach to adopt throughout our degrees.
Further Information
Information on creating a Myplace quiz is available at http://support.myplace.strath.ac.uk/display/MS/Creating+a+Quiz
