BASICS - Dublin Institute of Technology
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Transcript BASICS - Dublin Institute of Technology
Building A System to Ingrain Core-competencies
David Dorran
School of Electrical Engineering Systems
College of Engineering & Built Environment
[email protected]
Ext: 4873
Teaching Fellowship 2010-11
1
Lecturer:
“Using the
potential divider rule
from first year theory
the output voltage of
the circuit is 4 volts”
2nd year student : “I
“Potential
remember
divider???
hearing
Voltage??
“Oh
yes – the
potentialabout
dividerthe
voltage
divider
rule
must
look
rule,
also
known
as –the
voltage
it up some
– didn’t
realise
divider
rule,time
it shows
how
it was important”.
voltage
is spread across
resistors in series”
Teaching Fellowship 2010-11
2
Exams structured to allow content be omitted
from exam studies.
Surface learning for sole purpose of passing
exam.
Student unaware of relative importance of
certain content.
Teaching Fellowship 2010-11
3
Develop a system which encourages students to
spend more time on fundamentals/basics.
Implemented on webcourses:
Easy/wide access
Facility to provide quick feedback
Easy reuse of quizzes (thanks Michael Carr!)
Allows multiple attempts
Automatic corrections
Facility to track student progress (score and duration spent on quiz)
Demo on webcourses
Teaching Fellowship 2010-11
4
1.
Identify core competencies within a
programme – DT021 Electrical Engineering being used
as test case.
2.
3.
4.
Develop database of questions
Implementation – logistics and student
perspective
Evaluation
Teaching Fellowship 2010-11
5
Review module descriptors
1.
◦
not very useful – too much information
Discussions with colleagues
2.
◦
◦
Initially asked “What are the core competencies
developed in your module?”
Changed this to: “What are the prerequisite core
competencies for your module?”
Teaching Fellowship 2010-11
6
1.
2.
Reused and adapted Michael Cores Maths
quizzes.
Started with core competencies identified in
stage 1 – applicable to all stages – Four categories of question:
3.
Mathematics
Electronic Systems
Electrical Systems
Programming – ability to read code
Multiple choice questions avoided
– webcourses
calculated questions preferred
Teaching Fellowship 2010-11
7
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Students required to complete 6 core competency
quizzes.
Quizzes feed into assessment of 3 modules – 2 per
module.
Quizzes represent 5% of continuous assessment
mark.
Students must score 80%+ in quizzes in order to
receive any marks toward CA.
Quizzes available for one week – multiple attempts
allowed – quizzes unsupervised
Teaching Fellowship 2010-11
8
1.
Students participated in 3 focus groups - which
were facilitated separately by Muireann O’Keefe (LTTC), Gavin
Duffy
(SEES, former Teaching Fellow),
Brian Bowe
(Head of Learning
Development, EnBE)
2.
Two focus groups were recorded
3.
Approx 6 students per group.
(audio only)
Recorded groups were
chosen to have at least one international student and one mature student. Non-recorded
group coincidently only contained students who transferred in to the degree
programme.
4.
Each facilitator was provided with a set of
questions to guide the discussions (see
http://eleceng.dit.ie/dorran/basics)
Teaching Fellowship 2010-11
9
Full reports at http://eleceng.dit.ie/dorran/
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Students felt the quizzes were beneficial as they help
motivate revision.
They felt that more quizzes related to material they were
currently studying would be useful.
Quizzes were time consuming – up to two hours in some
cases.
5% of CA mark was enough to motivate them; as did the 80%
pass mark
A certain amount of copying occurred (approx 10% of questions
completed without any real understanding – mainly multiple choice)
6.
Students felt they benefitted from having multiple attempts
and being able to work together.
Teaching Fellowship 2010-11
10
Questions/Suggestions/Comments?
Teaching Fellowship 2010-11
11