Michael Scholtz

Michael Scholtz
What and why?

We designed a new first year course, specifically for the School of Medical Science, we were aware that many students weren't attending the second half session course, and we wanted to redress this problem with retention; and this was particularly true for students on particular programmes such as Sports Science because of the generic content of the existing course.

We decided to base this course around 6 modules, each of which would stretch over two weeks, covering a single topic and be taught by a single individual. Each module would then conclude with a single assessment, this course has no exam or essay but is assessed using multiple choice questions. We then decided to do this using the PRS handsets which allowed for a different level of interaction than traditional paper based MCQ assessments.

What's effective?

Although we still use paper copies of the questions, the PRS handsets then allow the students to work through the paper at their own pace (we do instruct students to use the self pace option), and this has been quite important for students allowing them to work at the speed that the find most natural. They're given 20 minutes to answer the 20 questions on the sheet then I fire up the system and then a few minutes later you can show statistics on a question to question basis. This allows the students to reflect on their own answers and it gives them instantaneous feedback as well. Student feedback has also been really good on this feature of the course, and it seems like the students really like it, too.

Problems?

The first year we did this, it was very successful, the students still liked it but we did have some technological problems which meant that it was perhaps less constructive for us than it was the first time.

The problem arose because there was a dramatic increase in student numbers, the first year we had about 80 or 90 students who actively participated in the course, the second time that rose to about 130 to 140 which meant there were many more people present. The room was really full and it also seemed to put strain on the system because I started to use multiple versions of the same quiz because they were all sat so tightly in the room. Now, the PRS system can cope with multiple versions of the same document (questions appearing in a different order), but the report function has had more trouble with this and this meant that it was much harder to give students their results the way I had previously. So, when it worked it was great but when it didn't it was really troublesome, and I've been in ongoing contact with Sara Preston from the eLearning team in trying to find a way round these problems.

Benefits to students?

The students seem to enjoy using the handsets and they also really like that they get the feedback when they can still remember what they did, and although you can do that in any form of assessment, it seems to be particularly effective with the PRS sets.

Own benefits?

I've become bolder perhaps, and I've learned a lot about different software and appliances and how they work, I've also become more aware of the potential pitfalls and how to avoid this. I think that's where I've benefitted most.