Student-generated content: using PeerWise to help support chemistry understanding and increase student engagement in a first year module

Dr Suzanne Fergus & Dr Stewart Kirton Department Pharmacy, School Life and Medical Sciences

A 1st year chemistry module (Molecular Structure and Reactivity) co-taught to undergraduate students from Dept of Pharmacy (n= 223) and Dept Health and Environmental Science (n=180).

Lack of practice questions A lot of information I found was like A-level, making it hard to remain engaged Too much content. Not enough exam practice. Would like more access to exam questions Hard to repeat work done inside out at A level and still be engaged in lectures

Provide sample exam paper with answers  Staff produce more practice questions ?

What about Week 12 Progress Test ?

Start Module with Contextualised Examples  Mixed abilities in cohort ?

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY OF COGNITIVE SKILLS

The amount of content per lecture can be a challenge.

The amount of material that needs to be learned. The huge difference between material learned at A-level compared to now.

….remembering all the material.

..being able to remember all the names, properties and reactions involving different molecules.

Lectures sometimes feel like information overload…. Chemistry has many details that are often difficult to remember.

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY OF COGNITIVE SKILLS

Students create multiple choice questions and share them with peers Students view, answer, and give feedback to their peers Free to use

MSR9 Assignment

Peerwise Question Development Due in Week 10, Friday 30 th Nov at 18:30 You are assigned two chemistry theory topics (which are also covered in Semester A lectures). You are required to create an MCQ on each topic, answer 5 questions, comment on 3 questions and rate other students’ questions for quality and difficulty.

The main stadium for the 2012 London Olympics was located in

A. Great Britain B. British Isles C. England D. Scotland E. Europe

Which of the following is not an intermolecular attractive force?

A. Hydrogen Bonding B. Dispersion Forces C. Dipole-Dipole Interactions D. Resonance Structures E. Ion-Ion Interactions

Camtasia video with step by step guide on “How to Register with Peerwise”

http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/docs/

Student Engagement    3 students out of 237 did not create any questions 52 students just answered the required 5 questions 75% of cohort answered more than the required number (2 students answered 95 questions!)

The MSR workshop 1 helped me to develop writing good quality Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) Answer Options

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Response Percent

23.3% 66.7% 8.3% 1.7% 0.0%

Response Count

14 40 5 1 0

The MSR workshop 1 helped me to develop writing good quality Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)

Strongly Agree Agree Neither Agree nor Disagree Disagree Strongly Disagree

Which aspect of the assignment (MSR9) did you find the most beneficial to your chemistry learning?

Answer Options

Creating MCQ Questions Answering MCQ Questions Commenting on MCQ Questions Other (please specify)

Response Percent

31.1% 63.9% 4.9% 0.0%

Response Count

19 39 3 0

Which aspect of the assignment (MSR9) did you find the most beneficial to your chemistry learning?

Creating MCQ Questions Answering MCQ Questions Commenting on MCQ Questions Other (please specify)

Which aspect of using Peerwise did you find the most challenging?

Answer Options

Creating MCQ Questions Answering MCQ Questions Commenting on Questions Registering on Peerwise Posting on Peerwise Other (please specify)

Response Percent

62.1% 17.2% 10.3% 5.2% 1.7% 3.4%

Response Count

36 10 6 3 1 2

Which aspect of using Peerwise did you find the most challenging?

Creating MCQ Questions Answering MCQ Questions Commenting on Questions Registering on Peerwise Posting on Peerwise Other (please specify)

Did you use Peerwise after the assignment deadline to prepare for the Progress Test in week 12?

Answer Options

Yes No Comment

Response Percent

57.6% 42.4%

Response Count

34 25 0

Did you use Peerwise after the assignment deadline to prepare for the Progress Test in week 12?

Yes No

It is very useful because I can find answers and explanations to various questions that I do not understand. moreover, I understood and learnt a lot of things by answering the questions in peerwise It definitely helps when revising for exams I thought it was an effective way of learning about how much you understood a certain topic as you had to understand something in order to write a question about it.

I'd question how beneficial it is compared to other revision/learning techniques. A lot of the questions written by students looked like they were written quickly and were unchallenging.

Peerwise is good to use, however the fact that it is your own choice to answer which ever question you prefer, it is easy to just choose the easy questions and not attempt the more challenging ones.

There is that cynical feeling knowing that a student wrote the question so there is that doubtful factor an lack of confident in the answer and a explanation for the MCQ.