Name: Mzwandile Shongwe
Course: LIS4053W - PGDip in Library and Information Science
Faculty: Humanities
Level: Postgraduate
Category: Mitigation Strategy
One sentence summary: Online quizzes were implemented to ensure students were reading the assigned material. Relying on the system to mark the quizzes didn’t work for short-answer and essay-type questions, and students needed more time to complete the quiz.
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Context: The course is very technical and comprises 80% theory and 20% practical. Students were given a lot of reading to do on their own as opposed to being taught in a classroom setting. The quizzes were implemented to ensure students were reading the material they were given.
Purpose: The quizzes were summative assessments based on reading material given 2-weeks prior.
Process: Students were told in advance that there would be a quiz. The quiz was done using the Vula tool. Students could take the quiz at any time during the day, but only had 30 minutes to complete it. There were 30 questions to answer for a total of 50 marks. Quizzes were a mix of MCQ, short-answer questions, and essay-type questions.
Outcomes/ Lessons learned: Relying on the system to mark the quizzes didn’t work for short-answer and essay-type questions. If the answer supplied didn’t perfectly match the answer set up in the system, it would be marked as incorrect. These then had to be marked manually and the marks had to be readjusted accordingly. Students also needed more time to complete the quiz. The method worked in getting students to read and engage with the material, and developing some computer literacy skills in the process.
Recommendations: Using MCQs can work as a way of encouraging students to demonstrate they have done reading and self study, but they have serious constraints - for example, MCQs are not suitable for short or long answer questions. Be cautious about setting timed quizzes - find a way of checking the time limits set before running the quiz.