Workshop presentation given at the Physics Higher Education Conference 2011, held at the University of Lancaster 8-9 Sept 2011

1. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Student generated content for
enhanced engagement and learning
PHEC 8-9 Sept 2011, Lancaster UK.
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2. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, Scotland
The University of Edinburgh
5th July, 2010
PeerWise
bridging the gap between online learning
and social media
Paul Denny
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
Group-based question creation session
(Break)
Groups answer questions created
Results of pilot implementation at Edinburgh
2010-11
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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 Student
creativity of a requests for
large class 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
– 45 institutions
– 260 courses
– 20661 students have contributed
– 57324 questions have been written
– 1527574 answers have been submitted

8. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
• To date
– 140 institutions
– 879 courses
– 47719 students have contributed
– 164503 questions have been written
– 3879994 answers 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
PeerWise was introduced in workshop
sessions in 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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12. Physics Education Research
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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14. Physics Education Research
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
• Assemble into themed groups (eg
mechanics, e&m, quantum, data
handling, thermal)
• Create some questions…..
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17. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
What we found
engagement, examples, effects
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18. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
It’s just a
gimmick…..
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19. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Uptake for in-
course assessment
Workshop Live Due
training
(class size of
~200)
350 questions
in total
~3500 answers
~2000 comments
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20. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
They’ll put in
nonsense &
irrelevant
questions….
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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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23. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
The questions will
be poor quality…
rote learning, factual recall
blah blah blah…..
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24. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
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25. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh

26. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
The science
will be all
wrong……
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27. Physics Education Research
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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29. Physics Education Research
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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32. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
… but they’ll
lose interest
after a while….
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33. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Mid-semester
deadline

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

35. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
… but you can’t
prove that
greater use
correlates with
performance….
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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
1 2 3 4 5 6
PW LPA
activity
X MPA X MPA 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

38. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
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!
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39. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Acknowledgements:
We gratefully acknowledge departmental
development project grant support from the
Higher Education Academy UK Physical
Sciences Centre.
ross.galloway@ed.ac.uk
http://bit.ly/EdPER

40. Physics Education Research
The University of Edinburgh
Now under way:
• JISC Assessment and Feedback research project:
Student Generated Content for Learning
(SGC4L)
Forthcoming HEA funding opportunities:
Volunteer partner institutions needed