Upcoming e-assessment events in Eastern Region

The following are a number of e-assessment events provided through JISC RSC Eastern, which you might be interested in over the next few weeks. e-Portfolios to support assessment and feedback

Free Webinars

e-Portfolios to support assessment and feedback
Friday 17th Feb 1-2pm
Presenters: Emma Purnell (University of Wolverhampton) and Geoff Rebbeck
Further info and to register: http://jiscaf17feb.eventbrite.co.uk/

Digitally-Enhanced Patchwork Text Assessment (DePTA)
Friday 24th February 2012 1-2pm
Presenter: Caroline Macangelo (University of Cumbria)
Further info and to register: http://jiscafdepta.eventbrite.co.uk/

Both sessions are free and will be hosted in Blackboard Collaborate.

On 30th March RSC Eastern are offering a free e-Assessment Showcase hosted by Hertford Regional College this event will showcase best practice in the Eastern Region, topics covered will include, Screencasting for Assessment , Enhancing the e-assessment processes in a mobile world, Verbal Tagging in assessment, paperless formative assessment design for BTEC courses, for the full programme and to book go to
http://info.rsc-eastern.ac.uk/events/event_details.asp?eid=1031

SafeAssign Downtime - 27th December 2011

We have received notification that SafeAssign will be taken offline on December 27th for maintenance and performance upgrades.

Below is the message we have received:

SAFEASSIGN MAINTENANCE UPDATE:
The SafeAssign service will be unavailable on Tuesday December 27, 2011 from 2:00 PM until Tuesday December 27, 2011 at 8:00 PM. SafeAssign is being taken offline for a maintenance upgrade. Upon completion of this upgrade, the RSS feed will be updated to indicate SafeAssign is back online and available.

This maintenance upgrade will improve hardware failover and upgrade the software. In conjunction with version 2.4.11 of the SafeAssign Building Block to be released at the same time, this software upgrade will include several maintenance fixes, including:

• SafeAssign now displays submissions for courses that have larger rosters and SafeAssignments without significant delay. GMNIBB- 163


• SafeAssign now allows downloading of SafeAssignments that contain the forward slash (/) character in the titled. GMNIBB-168


• The correct Feedback file is attached on the SafeAssignment grade. GMNI-249
  

We are hopeful that the 3rd point above will resolve the long running issue that we have had regarding feedback not staying associated with the correct students.

During this outage SafeAssign will be unavailable. End-users will not be able to submit papers through SafeAssign during the planned downtime and will receive an error message if they attempt to do so. SafeAssign Originality Reports will not be available to Instructors or Students during the planned downtime, nor will Instructors be able to access SafeAssign DirectSubmit. Please make end-users aware of these limitations. Use of SafeAssign can continue as normal after the planned downtime are complete.

Please do not re-submit
SAFEASSIGN PERFORMANCE UPDATE:
SafeAssign is experiencing regular delays due to load on the system. In one sense, the cause of these delays is quite simple: the rate of papers being submitted exceeding the speed with which SafeAssign can process papers. Submissions go into a queue, and are processed in a first-in, first-out order. When the submissions are entering the queue faster than they are processed, a backlog builds up. Normally, SafeAssign catches up on that backlog when the submission rate drops below the processing rate. However, because of record high usage we've been pretty consistently running over capacity 24 hours a day for several weeks now (except for the US Thanksgiving weekend). So the system never fully has the time to catch up, resulting in turnaround times of 12-24 hours in many instances.

Given projections from historical usage, the significant delays of 12-24 hours or more will continue through the first week of December and then rapidly ease off in mid-December as the semester closes. Clients should expect that they will not see any significant improvement in turnaround times before mid-December. Please do not re-submit papers that have not received a matching report to prevent creating an even larger backlog.

From a development perspective, the current focus on SafeAssign is scalability and improving turnaround time of submissions. We hope to be able to deploy further improvements in this area early next year. 

SafeAssign not Returning Plagiarism Score Reports

We have received notification from Blackboard that the SafeAssign plagiarism software has had a technical problem and was taken offline to be reconfigured.  The service is now backup and running, but a large backlog of submission has occurred.

This means that if you have had or have due, student submissions, the plagiarism reports will not be produced as quickly as normal, we have had some reports taking over 24 hours at present.

Unfortunately there isn't anything that can be done to speed up the process, we just need to wait for the reports to arrive.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

 

---

I have just received more detail from Blackboard:

SafeAssign is experiencing regular delays due to load on the system. In one sense, the cause of these delays is quite simple: the rate of papers being submitted exceeding the speed with which SafeAssign can process papers. Submissions go into a queue, and are processed in a first-in, first-out order. When the submissions are entering the queue faster than they are processed, a backlog builds up. Normally, SafeAssign catches up on that backlog when the submission rate drops below the processing rate. However, because of record high usage we've been pretty consistently running over capacity 24 hours a day for several weeks now (except for the Thanksgiving weekend). So the system never fully has the time to catch up, resulting in turnaround times of 12-24 hours in many instances.

Given projections from historical usage, the significant delays of 12-24 hours or more will continue through the first week of December and then rapidly ease off in mid-December as the semester closes. Clients should expect that they will not see any significant improvement in turnaround times before mid-December.

From a development perspective, the current focus on SafeAssign is scalability and improving turnaround time of submissions. In 2011-2012, we have a two-phase project to improve performance. Phase 1, executed over the summer, was replacement, upgrade, and expansion of the entire hardware environment in which SafeAssign runs. This was necessary to assure being able to move SafeAssign forward. However new/additional hardware is not the sole solution to the problem, as some bottlenecks in processing are a result of the application itself. The second phase, underway this fall and into 2012, is a detailed performance analysis of the SafeAssign application itself to determine the bottlenecks in the processing that continue to create backlogs/slowdowns, and to identify the associated development effort to rectify those bottlenecks.

There are some improvements that have already been identified. We will be put these initial improvements in place as soon as possible. At this time, though, we are not able to quantify the impact of these planned changes on turnaround time, as the performance analysis is ongoing.

Smart Pen for iPad/iPhone #eFun

I've just seen this article and thought it might be of interest to our growing number of tablet users, specifically the iPad users.

Having spent some time with lecturers talking about how they can use these tablets to help with their teaching, a number have asked about the availability of a stylus and whether you can use them to write on the tablet.

With the technology that is used for the multi-touch devices - capacative technology - a normal stylus doesn't work due to the requirement of electrical properties from the human body for the screen to know where you are touching.  You can purchase a type of stylus that replicates this electrical property, but they are only as accurate as a finger with regard to writing.

The Engadget article states

Want to write on your tablet without all of the requisite finger grease? How about a stylus? Too pedestrian? What about a Smart Pen? Better yet, what about the aPen A5 Smart Pen? eFun's peripheral includes a stylus and a receiver that hooks into your iPad or iPhone's 30 pin connector, digitizing your handwriting or drawings via a number of compatible apps, including the company's own free Studio Basic Light. The A5 is set, broadly, for a release some time in 2012, and should run you around $99 whenever it actually hits the market.

This is a really interesting concept and may work well with our eFeedback & eAssessment iPad project.

Using the ShowMe App for storyboarding learning materials

The Elevate Team are developing a number of talk over screencasts with the intention of developing individuals (staff and student) in the potential use of learning technologies. An issue with these is the design and development time for early iterations, ie., story boards, walk throughs, and opening these up for feedback from various parties before creating the final version.

Traditionally, a large amount of time is involved in creating and publishing early versions using computer based screencast software, such as Camtasia. Therefore, I'm now using the ShowMe app on my iPad as a means of removing the need for a computer (with mic, screencast software) to create and share prototypes etc., For me this provides a significant time saving as I can request make quick changes, and respond to feedback.

The approach is to capture various screens, record and make available as a private recording (only those with url can access it). Once people have accessed the video they can collaborate electronically, or we can review it face to face. An example is available at >> http://www.showme.com/sh/?i=22652 >> this is the basis of our student induction video for Wolsey at UCS. As you can tell, the audio is poor (beware the room you record it in), however, at this stage the focus is more around the overall narrative.

I'd suggest this approach is transferable to other situations where people are collaborating on the creation of screencast learning materials and generic feedback as standalone learning objects. For information, on how you might want to use this, please email us at elevate@ucs.ac.uk

 

Removing the need for a computer for screencasting with the ShowMe App from an iPad

I recently discussed the use of the ShowMe App with some Library Staff who have iPads and want to create some video based FAQs on databases. They rather liked the product, and the creation process, all except the process of getting the images onto the iPad. I smiled and said well I take a screenshot using Jing on my PC and then upload to Dropbox, to download to my iPad. The reason for using JING is so I can capture exactly want I need. However, they all looked blankly at me, and I thought, there must be a better way. The better way is as follows;

1. on your iPad, take a screen grab (to capture the screen image or take a screenshot in iPad, just press the Home button and Sleep/Wake (On/Off) key at the top of the mobile device simultaneously at the same time) of the image(s) you need, ie., the library database, or VLE page you are accessing in Safari. This stores the image in your saved images section.


2. to edit the photo (crop and rotate) use a photo application on your iPad - I use Chop Suey.


3. open ShowMe, access the image(s) and start the screencast, publish and share the link

 

Exploring feedback options on an iPad: the ShowMe App

We are continuing to look at the potential of small / tablet technologies for staff to efficiently and effectively generate feedback (generic of individual). I've just created a short screen recording from my iPad using the ShowMe App.

My latest creation explores the idea of creating the screencast around a number of images (in this case around 10). Therefore, it is not simply free drawing and audio, but a more structured presentation.

The final product is available from: http://www.showmeapp.com/sh/?i=19332 - and is a walk through of how to create a quiz in Blackboard.

The process was relatively straight forward;

1. create the screen grabs on the computer (I used Jing on my Mac)


2. move these images to Dropbox


3. open the iPad, open Dropbox and save the images to the iPad


4. open up ShowMe, open up the image


5. start recording


6. upload finished recording, and add link (announcement) to the course

The process of adding more than one image was to use the pause button for the recording, clear the whiteboard, open the new image, size it appropriately, and start the recording.

This was all in terms of the creation process. However, there are a few caveats. One is the strength of ShowMe is the simplicity of use, which includes no editing options. This is a potential weakness for the way I combined 10 images in to a linear narrative. You will need to have planned (semi scripted) the session because if you are 10 minutes into the recording and make a serious mistake you will need to start all over again !!

The strength of this solution for the person creating the feedback can do it from the comfort of their sofa - therefore, I didn't have issues with a microphone, computer, managing and converting file types, and saving into the VLE. For me, this overcomes as significant barrier to participation ... as the iPad and ShowMe app overcomes a lot of technology issues.

 

The use of clickers at UCS: reflections on academic year 2010/11

I've written the report of the initial observations and staff feedback on the use of clicker's (audience response system) to enhance the learning experience. The full report is available from:

• http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12497737/reports/clickers_report_2011_elevate.pdf
  

The outcomes were very encouraging. The executive summary is;

In January 2011, the Elevate Team started administrating an audience response system (clickers) pilot service at UCS. This service aimed to administer the loan of clickers and develop staff in how they might use audience response systems (TurningPoint Clickers) to enhance face to face teaching.

The following report covers the period January 1st, 2011 and April 30th, 2011, and aims to address;

1. Are clickers being used by staff at UCS and are they likely to continue using them?


2. Do staff perceive clickers add value to their teaching, and the student learning experience?


3. Is the emerging staff development model and support programme fit for purpose? Will it scale for greater uptake?

The broad findings imply;

1. staff liked using clickers, the perception was they add value to their teaching and staff are planning to use them again.


2. the administration around managing the clickers needs to be improved. In particular, the collection and return process


3. the staff development programme needs to be fine tuned in terms of greater emphasis on question design and more promotion.

So it reads like this is much more to come with people using clickers creatively at UCS :-)

 

Thoughts from objective testing workshop

I ran the last of the Elevate Teams three sessions for the e-skills for e-learning programme, with a workshop on Using objective testing in learning and teaching. This was designed as an introduction, so we looked at what are the characteristics of objective testing, how it might be used, some principles of effective formative feedback, walked through how to create and deploy a Wolsey Quiz, and a TurningPoint (clicker) quiz, and finally unleased the attendees in groups to design and deploy these objective tests.

The discussion and sharing of ideas was very rich as the exercises allowed us to quickly overcome the technical aspects & perceived barriers and focus on question design, and implementation. Infact, two of the groups didn't follow the instructions of developing objective quizzes around Tea, and instead started to work up quizzes they planned to use in the next few weeks :-)

The feedback forms where positive with the mean response being "strongly agree" to the trainer helping me feel at ease and encouraged participation, while the mean response was "agree" to overall I found the content of the session helpful.

Using the OMR Form Return for gathering feedback and assessment

As the Elevate Team start to roll out more staff development sessions we are adopting the UCS Corporate Development Session Evaluation Form. However, we'll be using the FormReturn Optical Mark Reader software to manage the process.

This OMR system is being piloted by a number of people. The primary person is Alison Wright, who uses it manage sets of interview tests. The great advantage of this system over alternatives, such as Wolsey, is you can deploy it where ever you need to, for a high stake exam (one which would be very difficult to repeat) the deployment model is very low risk. The results are available within 10 minutes of me scanning the completed answer sheets as an excel sheet. Alison's model includes negative marking, and the system works out the total score. This means Alison can see at a glance overall and individual performance. The spreadsheet also includes the actual responses. This means over a number of tests the discipline team can review the appropriateness of the questions.

We'll be using it slightly differently. We'll not be tracking people, we'll be more tracking responses. Interestingly, we include one open question which will need to be re-typed into the spreadsheet.

If you are interested in finding out more about if the OMR software we use is appropriate for your needs, please email the Elevate Team (elevate@ucs.ac.uk)

How do I track student responses?

• Author: Andy Ramsden (a.ramsden@ucs.ac.uk)


• Date: 22nd December, 2010


• Technical Keyword: Clickers, Classroom Technologies,


• Learning Keyword: Feedback

Introduction (Description)

The aim of this How to Guide is to describe how to set up a way of tracking the student and the response device for your classroom interactions. For instance, you might set a test where you want to give individual feedback and monitor progress. In this situation anonymous responses are adequate. The solution is to use Participant Registration Tool. Given the set up time in class, I’d suggest this would work very well for small numbers. For large numbers (say above 30) please contact the ELEVATE Team to discuss potential strategies.

Steps

Step 1: watch the screencast video by TurningPoint

• http://www.turningtechnologies.com/responsesystemsupport/producttraining/onlinetutorials/onlinetutorials/index.cfm?tutorialid=28

Step 2: Implementation suggestions

From a practical perspective, design in time for the following;

• Create your participation list beforehand and save to your desktop.


• Get into the lecture room a few minutes beforehand for the set up


• Contact the ELEVATE Team to walk through the process beforehand
  

Where Next

• For more information on how you might use this technology to enhance the student learning experience please contact us via email wolsey@ucs.ac.uk.


• TurningPoint provide a large number of accessible support videos. These are available from: http://www.turningtechnologies.com/responsesystemsupport/producttraining/onlinetutorials/


• To booking form for the clickers is available from, http://tinyurl.com/ucsclickers

Creative Commons & Open Educational Resources

The Enhancing Learning Through Technology Team embrace open educational resources. Therefore, this resource is available under the following Creative Common License.



(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

• Permanent Link (URL)


• Permanent Link (Word Doc)


• Resource ID: HCTC003

How to set up the Turning Point clickers in our teaching rooms

• Author: Andy Ramsden (a.ramsden@ucs.ac.uk)


• Date: 6th December, 2010


• Technical Keyword: Clickers, Classroom Technologies,


• Learning Keyword: Feedback

Introduction (Description)

The aim of this How to Guide is to describe how to set up the audience response system in the teaching space and provide advice for you post the teaching event.

Steps

Step 1: At the start

* Start the computer

* Plug in USB receiver

* Open Up turning point software

* Open up PowerPoint (with questions)

* Click on Reset option on the task bar and select session

* Start Slideshow

* Minimize the smart board software (right Hand side of display screen) if you aren't using the symposium tools

Step 2: At the end of the teaching event

* When you have finished the lecture save the PowerPoint with a new name. Perhaps upload it to your course in Wolsey so students can revisit it later

* Close the turning point software ... You are recommended to save the session date (so you can run further reports if required). Save this to your desktop, and store the file later

* Collect the clickers and the USB receiver



The Timer will display on your powerpoint slide. Move this display, and to change the duration (seconds) double click on the timer and enter the time you’d like.

Where Next

• For more information on how you might use this technology to enhance the student learning experience please contact us via email wolsey@ucs.ac.uk.


• TurningPoint provide a large number of accessible support videos. These are available from: http://www.turningtechnologies.com/responsesystemsupport/producttraining/onlinetutorials/


• To booking form for the clickers is available from, http://tinyurl.com/ucsclickers

Creative Commons & Open Educational Resources

The Enhancing Learning Through Technology Team embrace open educational resources. Therefore, this resource is available under the following Creative Common License.



(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

• Permanent Link (URL)


• Permanent Link (Word Doc) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12497737/ELLT%20HTG/Setup%20for%20clickers%20in%20classroom%20HCT002.doc


• Resource ID: HCTC001

How could I set up a clicker question in my powerpoint?

• Author: Andy Ramsden (a.ramsden@ucs.ac.uk)


• Date: 17th November, 2010


• Technical Keyword: Clickers, Classroom Technologies,


• Learning Keyword: Feedback

Introduction (Description)

The aim of this how to guide is to bring three common questions to together and walk through how you might  add an interactive (clicker) question to your powerpoint presentation, set a time limit for the students to answer the question, and once closed, display the correct answer.

A potential scenario would be, you’ve written a objective question (one which has a correct answer), and wish to see the proportion of the audience who get it right, and the proportion who get it wrong. You wish to set a time to introduce a little bit of pressure, and display the correct answer for clarity in the classroom and because you are intending to upload the powerpoint to your VLE course.

Steps

Step 1: Adding the question to your powerpoint presentation

* Open up Turning Point 2008
* Open up your powerpoint presentation (file)
*  Use slide sorter (left side) to navigate to where you want add the question slide
* Using the Turning Point tool bar, click on Insert Slide >>> Select Generic >>>Select question by the number of possible answers
* Edit slide, including adding the question, and all the possible responses

Alternatively, see the very good (and short) videos produced by the TurningPoint >> http://trainingportal.turningtechnologies.com/turningPoint.cfm

Step 2: Selecting “display correct answer” after the students have voted

This is a two step process. Firstly, you’ll need to set the graphic which displays the correct answer indicator across all slides within your presentation. This is from a list of icons. Secondly, you need to associate the correct response on the actual question.

Select the correct answer indicator

* Using the Turning Point tool bar, click >>> Insert option >>> Select the correct answer indicator >>> select the icon you wish to use

Secondly, set the correct answer for a particular question (slide)

* Navigate to question slide in your presentation
* Highlight the correct answer using your mouse
* Right click on your mouse to display a new menu panel >>> click on set as correct

Step 3 - Set timer for a particular question

This option will automatically close the polling after the time you set. It will also display a counter (timer) on your powerpoint slide.
* Using the Turning Point tool bar, click >>> Insert option >>> Select Countdown >>> Select Timer

The Timer will display on your powerpoint slide. Move this display, and to change the duration (seconds) double click on the timer and enter the time you’d like.

Where Next

• For more information on how you might use this technology to enhance the student learning experience please contact us via email wolsey@ucs.ac.uk.


• TurningPoint provide a large number of accessible support videos. These are available from: http://www.turningtechnologies.com/responsesystemsupport/producttraining/onlinetutorials/


• To booking form for the clickers is available from, http://tinyurl.com/ucsclickers

Creative Commons & Open Educational Resources

The Enhancing Learning Through Technology Team embrace open educational resources. Therefore, this resource is available under the following Creative Common License.



(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

• Permanent Link (URL)


• Permanent Link (Word Doc) http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12497737/How%20could%20I%20set%20up%20a%20clicker%20question%20in%20my%20powerpoint%20HCTC001.doc


• Resource ID: HCTC001