<< StopienWykladu

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Frequently Asked Questions - wiki points

How is it possible that nearly all students get full marks?

See StopienWykladu for the method. UMK is a university, not a stockmarket. The purpose of teaching is that students learn. In a stockmarket, there are winners and losers. In learning, everyone (in principle) can be a winner. So everyone who learns enough can get full marks.

How is it possible for this method to be efficient?

Is the foswiki method of assessing (grading) students, associated with a StopienWykladu based on students' own choice of points, an efficient teaching/learning method?

Arguments in favour

• context effect
  • Since it is recommended that students write a few sentences about the part of astronomy they are interested in, and to choose points which are related to what they are interested in, this context factor is enhanced.
• testing Recall tests are better than recognition tests - By choosing their own points, these tests are recall tests.
• feedback effects feedback clearly in favour
• meaningful repetitions interactions between students asking each other about their chosen goals, how to do X or Y, clearly provides meaningful repetition
• learning objectives - clearly this is a strong factor in favour
• Meaningfulness effect clearly in favour
• Organization effects clearly in favour
• Levels-of-Processing effects clearly in favour
• Mathemagenic Effects Mathemagenic effects, coined by Rothkopf (1970) , refer to various things that learners do to prepare and assist their own learning. These effects refer to the active information processing by learners. Mathemagenic activities include answering adjunct questions or taking notes and can enhance learning. clearly in favour

Arguments against

• lack of uniformity among specific students' choices
• possible choice of points which are too easy
• possibility of "cheating"
  • But note that cheating is quite systematic in conventional "closed" written examinations in Polish universities.
• difficulty in deciding how much is the work/thinking of that individual student
  • But students doing astronomy (or related themes) in practice in the future will most likely have at least as good internet access as they do now
• subjectivity?
  • a wiki is relatively objective in recording what the student thinks, and how s/he corrects him/herself over time; but there is still an element of subjectivity in deciding if a point is worth it
  • convential "oral" exams in Polish universties (e.g. CA-UMK) are by definition extremely subjective - body language, emotional reactions, etc. have a much bigger role than in an anonymous written examination
• distracting elements Clearly there are strong distracting elements when web and general internet access is freely available.
  • However, these meta-skills of internet use are an instrinsic part of observational and theoretical astronomy, so learning these meta-skills is potentially a benefit as much as a cost.

see also

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_theory_%28education%29