Comments on: Online assessment tools presentation

By: Carol Reed

Carol Reed — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:56:47 +0000

I found Becky’s presentation very interesting. I have never used Quia, but it looked like it could be a useful tool. However, I do not like the idea of having to pay for it. Fortunately for me, many of the math textbooks we use here at LCCC come packaged with MyMathLab or EduSpace. Both are online tutorial and more websites that coordinate with the specific textbook. This semester I am using MyMathLab with two of my classes for the first time and have given my students several assignments through this system. The students must register at the beginning of the semester and are then automatically entered into my gradebook. I can then create homework assignments, quizzes, and tests. It allows me to set the due dates for each and the number of attempts. I can choose questions from a bank of questions or create my own. Students can log on and complete the assignments from any computer so they do not need to do it in class. In addition, the program generates similar problems so that each student gets different questions – i.e. the students get the same types of questions, but no two get the exact same problem. Therefore, one student cannot log on, complete the assignment and then pass on the solutions to others. So far, I have not had any difficulties using it and it has been very easy to learn. In fact, I am planning on using it with all of my classes in the spring.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:16:15 +0000

Our district was using SurveyMonkey for a few years. I never had to use it myself, however, from what I heard, the teachers thought it was good. I polled some of our staff to see if anyone has been using it. A few of our teachers have been using it regularly. What I have found is that some are using the PowerPoint and Captivate solution I showed earlier and others are using a survey function that is part of our Microsoft SharePoint deployment.

Talking with some of these teachers and showing them a little bit about Quia, they all seemed rather excited and felt they were times that Quia would be better to use than the systems already available.

By: Abimbolu Odusola

Abimbolu Odusola — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:53:03 +0000

I enjoyed learning from you about Quia. No doubt a tool for beginners and experienced teachers. My question from the class was on why you had to pay for this fully implementable tool expecially when your school district may not have any tool that would allow you to effectively accomplish your work. I believe it was Stacy that thought it requires a lot of time to set up your tests but I think you mentioned that you can upload finished products. Moreover, I thought that you’re only using part of the tool that applies to your need which could mean there are some more useful parts that may not have been fully explored. Overall I am sure it has been a great tool for you to the extent that you are willing to pay for it.

By: Patricia Carroll

Patricia Carroll — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:37:15 +0000

Your presentation was very informative and I enjoyed getting to hear your knowledge on the tool. I used Quia as an undergraduate in my Spanish classes and so had some knowledge of the student side of Quia. I really think that it would be a beneficial tool to use in the classroom with students. Pre-tests would be a good use for this tool because it would give almost instant feedback.

By: pchu

pchu — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:48:09 +0000

For survey purpose only I use Zoomerang (http://info.zoomerang.com). You can create a free basic Zoomerang account and do the following: unlimited number of surveys, each survey 30 items and 100 responses, and all responses will be kept 10 days. For regular survey use I think that this suffices.
The other online application I am using is the UnitedStreaming (http://www.unitedstrearming.com). It has calendar, lesson plan library, assignment builder, quiz Builder, and writing prompt builder. These functions are similar to the ones in Quia. The differences are subscription cost and interactive learning activities. UntedStreaming is more expensive than Quia and usually schools are the subscribers (each building $1,500 ~$3,000 annually), not the individual teachers. Besides streaming videos UntedStreaming doesn’t have interactive activities. The alternative is the Thinkfinity (formerly called Marco Polo Education http://www.marcopolo-education.com). This website has 8 partners that provide a lot of online interactive activities across the curriculum, and it is totally free. However, I think Quia is a really nice service because it has almost everything that teachers need.

By: srg205

srg205 — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:52:08 +0000

Great job Becky. I’ve never seen Quia before. Even though I’m in an elementary school, I think something like this would definitely benefit us. It seems like it takes a lot of time to set up all your test, but once they are done, you don’t ever have to do them again. Or you may easily just tweak a question or two. What I really liked about Quia is that you can instantly see what questions the students got right and wrong. It must be such a time saving. It would be great to have something like this in our school, since our report cards are so detailed. The only thing I forgot to ask you about is whether or not you can have open-ended responses. If so, can you go in and grade those on your own. Unfortunately with how we are supposed to assess, much of our tests are subjective. It becomes very difficult when your grade system is based on a 1, 2, 3, 4. If we could go back to the regular grading system, Quia is definitely something that I would consider looking into. Thanks so much for sharing this with us. I made me realize that there are programs out there that can help me do my grading in less time.

By: dabrace1984

dabrace1984 — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:19:59 +0000

It is tools like this that I would love to use if I were in an actual teaching position right now. One thing that is really intriguing about Quia is related to regular activities and assignments that would normally be handwritten and given to teachers on a piece of paper. Now these regular activites and assignments can be posted online and teachers don’t have to worry lugging piles of papers from point A to point B. Teachers also don’t have to worry about miss placing these papers because they are stored on-line.

By: Alex Rolón

Alex Rolón — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 18:50:30 +0000

Becky,
It is great that you are taking an initiative to incorporate this tool in your classes. What is more amazing is the fact that your dedication is paying for such tool. Isn’t it pathetic to live in the greatest country of the world and yet education is treated like a second class citizen? There are many tools that can enhance students’ learning and improve teachers’ instruction, but there are other agendas…PSSA tests scores.
I apologize to sound so negative, but here we are in a “technology in school setting” course, but there are too many limitations as to what tools we can use. And for the most part the ones that are free, to get the most out of them would mean paying for the “full” membership.
Thank you for taking the initiative to use this tool in your classes.

By: Terri Miquel

Terri Miquel — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 17:48:17 +0000

I agree with Matt that online assessments like those with Quia would be great for pre-assessment to see how much students already know because they would be scored quickly and the teacher could then plan instruction that doesn’t waste time on what the students have already mastered. I can also see using Quia for quick “quizzes” to assess students’ grasp of vocabulary and factual material that needs to be memorized. Depending on the subject matter this tool could be very useful. I also liked that you could also create activities for students to use for “practice.” Being able to create VERY CUSTOMIZED activities using the specific words/concepts/facts/ideas being used during instruction would be a great way to give students extra practice that they could access from school or from home since it would be web-based. All in all, this could be a very useful tool if used wisely!

By: mattwolf

mattwolf — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:15:04 +0000

I thought this was a great presentation and a very useful tool. I am really excited to use quia when I have my own classroom. Since I will be teaching mathematics, I think the best use for this tool would be a pre-test that would be given two days before the actual test. Quia has automatic grading/assessment so I would quickly be able to see what content the students may be struggling with so that I can gear a review exercise toward this area before the test.