Showcasing the PeerWise online environment, to illustrate to participants how it can be used by students to generate their own original assessment content in the form of multiple choice questions.

1. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
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Familiarity Breeds Content: Student generated content forenhanced engagement and learning
Simon Bates, Judy Hardy, Ross Galloway and Karon McBride
http://bit.ly/SGC4L

2. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, Scotland
5thJuly, 2010
Paul Denny
PeerWise
bridging the gap between online learning and social media
Department of Computer Science
The University of Auckland
New Zealand
http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/

3. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Intro and overview of PeerWise
(Elluminate room)
Hands-on!
http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/
Results of pilot implementation at Edinburgh 2010 and 2011 and Q&A
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4. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
overview
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5. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Student familiarity with Web 2.0
The energy and creativity of a large class
Student requests for more problems

6. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
•Web-based MCQ repository built by students
•Students:
–develop new questions with associated explanations
–answer existing questions and rate them for quality and difficulty
–take part in discussions
–can follow other authors

7. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
•2007-Summer 2010
–45institutions
–260 courses
–20661students have contributed
–57324questions have been written
–1527574answers have been submitted

8. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
•To date
–140institutions
–879 courses
–47719students have contributed
–164503questions have been written
–3879994answers have been submitted

9. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
What we did in our course(s)
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10. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
2010 -PeerWise was introduced in workshop sessions in S1 Week 5
Students worked through
structured introductory activities
Grunge Prowkers test available from www.uwe.ac.uk/elearning/examples/mcq.pdf
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11. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
PeerWise was introduced in workshop sessions in Week 5
Students worked through
structured example task
and devised own Qs
in groups.
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The University of Edinburgh
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13. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
In S1, an assessment was set for the end of Week 6:
Minimum requirements:
•Write one question
•Answer 5
•Comment on & rate 3
Contributed ~3% to course assessment
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The University of Edinburgh
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15. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
We were deliberately
hands off.
•No moderation
•No corrections
•No interventions at all
But we did observe…..
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16. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Your turn!
http://peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz/
•Click on ‘Get started’ top right
•Course code 5808
•Pick a username (user001-user100)
•Create some general knowledge Qs
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17. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
What we found
engagement, examples, effects
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The University of Edinburgh
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It’s just a gimmick…..

19. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Uptake for in-
course assessment
(class size of
~200)
350 questions
in total
~3500 answers
~2000 comments
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Workshop
training
Live
Due

20. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
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They’ll put in nonsense & irrelevant questions….

21. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
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22. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Quality of submissions:
•Average quality was very good
•Few trivial questions / nonsense distracters
•‘Community moderation’ discouraged sub-par questions
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The University of Edinburgh
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The questions will be poor quality… rote learning, factual recall blah blah blah…..

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The University of Edinburgh
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The University of Edinburgh

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The University of Edinburgh
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The science will be all wrong……

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The University of Edinburgh
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28. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Perceptions
We sought student feedback both in ‘wash-up’ sessions after the assessment and in the end of course questionnaire
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The University of Edinburgh
Positives
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30. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Positives
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31. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Negatives
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The University of Edinburgh
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… but they’ll lose interest after a while….

33. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Mid-semester deadline

34. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
End-of-semester deadline

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The University of Edinburgh
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… but you can’t prove that greater use correlates with performance….

36. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Low PeerWise Activity
High PeerWise Activity

37. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Matched Pairs:
Scottish, male, non-majors
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2
3
4
5
6
PW activity
X
MPA
X
MPA
LPA
LPA
No auth
PW mark
X
23
X
23
14
14
CW
70
71
48
50
62
67
Exam
56
69
49
54
40
34
Grade
B
A
D
C
D
Fail

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The University of Edinburgh
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Take-homes:
•Provide orientation task
•Set the quality bar very high
•Force yourself to be hands-off
•Set an assessment task
•Leave the deadline as late as you can
•Assessment is quality-based but light-load (no direct marking required)
•Unleash the creativity of your students!

39. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Now under way:
JISC Assessment and Feedback research project: Student Generated Content for Learning (SGC4L)
http://bit.ly/SGC4L

40. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
http://bit.ly/EdPER
Acknowledgements:
We gratefully acknowledge funding from
•JISC
•Higher Education Academy UK Physical Sciences Centre.
S.P.Bates@ed.ac.uk