Open Source Assessment Tools Meeting the Needs of Science Majors
Summary: At the end of my presentation, attendees will know more about the capabilities of the assessment tools of LON-CAPA, an open source course management system (CMS). They will also see how these online tools are more appropriate for science classes than what's available in the Blackboard CMS, and how we use LON-CAPA in conjunction with Blackboard.
Description:
Disappointed with the assessment tools in the Blackboard CMS, I searched for online assessment tools that would better meet my needs teaching a beginning biology major's class. My search led me to LON-CAPA that I have been using for the past two years (along with Blackboard). Throughout this time I've been discovering more about the power of LON-CAPA assessment tools, especially for science classes.
What makes LON-CAPA assessment tools so powerful is they can generate "individualized" problems and questions. Simply put, for each "individualized" quantitative or qualitative problem, each student will get a slightly different computer-generated problem or question to answer. The striking change we've witnessed is that students no longer are asking, "What's the answer to problem or question so-and-so," instead students are asking, "How do I solve problem or answer question so-and-so." Better yet, I'm not spending time, nor my teaching staff's time, hand grading these problems and questions. Instead, we are spending more time helping students understand how to solve and answer questions.
I will be demonstrating LON-CAPA assessment tools so attendees can see their capabilities. I will also describe the initiative my department has undertaken to make it possible for more of our faculty to use the LON-CAPA assessment tools in their classes, and how ITaP is working toward making it possible for any faculty at Purdue University to use them, too.
What makes LON-CAPA assessment tools so powerful is they can generate "individualized" problems and questions. Simply put, for each "individualized" quantitative or qualitative problem, each student will get a slightly different computer-generated problem or question to answer. The striking change we've witnessed is that students no longer are asking, "What's the answer to problem or question so-and-so," instead students are asking, "How do I solve problem or answer question so-and-so." Better yet, I'm not spending time, nor my teaching staff's time, hand grading these problems and questions. Instead, we are spending more time helping students understand how to solve and answer questions.
I will be demonstrating LON-CAPA assessment tools so attendees can see their capabilities. I will also describe the initiative my department has undertaken to make it possible for more of our faculty to use the LON-CAPA assessment tools in their classes, and how ITaP is working toward making it possible for any faculty at Purdue University to use them, too.
Laurie Iten
Associate Professor
Purdue University
Associate Professor
Purdue University
Faculty member in Purdue's Department of Biological Sciences who enjoys using online technology that helps her students learn, and helps her teach.