Part 1 of Paul Denny's presentation at the LTKB workshop, Edinburgh 2011. PeerWise is a web-based repository of MCQs built by students. Students are given the responsibility of creating and moderating the resource. By leveraging the creativity and energy of a class, a large, diverse and rich resource can result.

1. University of Edinburgh
Peer Feedback and Assessment for Science and Engineering
17th December, 2010
PeerWise
familiarity breeds content
student-authored questions using PeerWise
Paul Denny
Department of Computer Science
The University of Auckland
New Zealand

2. Goals
• What is PeerWise?
– Motivations
• Demonstration
• Examples of use
– Auckland
– Otago
– Edinburgh

3. What is PeerWise?
• Web-based MCQ repository built by students
simple, student-driven

4. Motivations
Student familiarity
with Web 2.0
The energy and Student generated
creativity of a large class questions

5. Large classes
• A powerful resource ENGGEN 131, 10am Stream
Semester Two, 2009

6. Student familiarity with Web 2.0
• Characteristics
– user-generated content
– contributions by many users
– techniques for content discovery

7. Student generated questions
• Not a unique idea:
– Balajthy (1984), Yu et al. (2002), Fellenz (2004),
Barak and Rafaeli (2004), Chang et al. (2005),
Horgen (2007), ....

9. What is PeerWise?
• 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

10. What is PeerWise?
• Reputation score, leader-boards and badges…

11. What is PeerWise?

12. PeerWise
• Demonstration

13. Examples of use
• The University of Auckland
• University of Otago
• The University of Edinburgh

14. Auckland
• COMPSCI 101, Semester 1, 2007
• n = 460
– 2% participation bonus
– 1 question, 10 answer requirement

15. Auckland
• Daily usage

16. Auckland
• Daily usage
participation deadline

17. Auckland
• Daily usage
57%
participation deadline final exam

18. Otago
• Biology courses:
– CELS191 (Semester 1)
– HUBS191 (Semester 1)
– HUBS192 (Semester 2)
• Very large classes
• Student participation was voluntary

19. Otago
• Half the class was active, few authors, many
answerers
CELS 191 HUBS 191 HUBS 192

20. Otago
CELS 191 HUBS 191 HUBS 192 TOTAL
Students 2146 2021 1738 -
enrolled
Number of 114 89 81 -
authors
Number of 1159 974 802 -
answerers
Number of
questions
Number of
answers
Avg. answers -
per student

21. Otago
CELS 191 HUBS 191 HUBS 192 TOTAL
Students 2146 2021 1738 -
enrolled
Number of 114 89 81 -
authors
Number of 1159 974 802 -
answerers
Number of 753 702 895 2350
questions
Number of
answers
Avg. answers -
per student

22. Otago
CELS 191 HUBS 191 HUBS 192 TOTAL
Students 2146 2021 1738 -
enrolled
Number of 114 89 81 -
authors
Number of 1159 974 802 -
answerers
Number of 753 702 895 2350
questions
Number of 163761 172289 167594 503644
answers
Avg. answers -
per student

23. Otago
CELS 191 HUBS 191 HUBS 192 TOTAL
Students 2146 2021 1738 -
enrolled
Number of 114 89 81 -
authors
Number of 1159 974 802 -
answerers
Number of 753 702 895 2350
questions
Number of 163761 172289 167594 503644
answers
Avg. answers 141.3 176.9 209.0 -
per student

24. HUBS 192
Number of
answers per HUBS 191
day
CELS 191

25. Otago
• The top-scorer in CELS 191 was awarded a
prize, and sent the following email to teaching
staff
“PeerWise is a very good learning tool, especially for
revision after a lecture. I find that if I can explain the
concept, then I have grasped the ideas of the lecture,
and if there is something I am struggling to grasp
someone will have posted a question which once I
have worked my way through, makes the concept
clearer. So I am very grateful for the resource.”

26. Edinburgh

27. Edinburgh
• Physics 1A, Semester 1, 2010
• n ~ 200
– 3% participation mark
– author 1 question
– answer 5 questions
– comment on and rate 3 questions

28. Edinburgh
• PeerWise was introduced
in workshop sessions in
Week 5
• Students worked through a
structured example task
and devised their own
questions in groups

29. Edinburgh

30. Total:
350 questions
Workshop Live Due
training
~3500 answers
30

31. Uptake towards exam:
No additional questions Assessed
coursework
deadline
Exam
~170 answers
31

32. Edinburgh
• A few example questions...

33. Coming up
• Your turn...

35. Thank you
• Any questions?
– Now
– Later
Paul Denny
paul@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Department of Computer Science
The University of Auckland
PeerWise
peerwise.cs.auckland.ac.nz