Online Assessment Case Studies
A number of Course Coordinators kindly shared their eAssessment experiences with the Online
Assessment Guidelines Working Party.
The online assessment tools covered in these Case Studies includes MyUni Tests, MyUni Test Pools,
Maple TA tests, MyUni Journals, Textbook publisher’s Online Assessment (integrated with MyUni),
and Turnitin assignments.
For more information about the topics covered in these Case Studies, or to work out how to best
implement eAssessment in your course please contact your Faculty eLearning Adviser.
Table 1 Online Assessment Tools used in specific Case Study
Online Assessment Tool
Case Study
MyUni online Tests
1, 3
MyUni Test Pools
3
Maple TA online Tests
4
MyUni Journal
2
Textbook publisher’s Online Assessment
(integrated with MyUni)
5
Turnitin Assignments
1, 2, 3, 5
Case Study 1
Course: Principles of Microeconomics
Enrolment: 700 first-year students in first semester
Online assessment: Weekly quiz and Weekly written assignment
MyUni tools used: MyUni Tests, Turnitin
Weekly quiz (MyUni Test)
Students are required to undertake 12 quizzes (MyUni Tests) over the semester (one per week). The
best 9 out of 12 quizzes are used (to allow for minor or idiosyncratic technical or personal issues), in
a total worth 10% of the overall course assessment.
Only one quiz is 'available' at any time. Each quiz is open for one week and is due at 3pm Friday
(while university services and IT support are open). A practice quiz (not marked) is available before
the first ‘for-marks’ quiz is due.
Each quiz contains five multiple choice questions. Students are given 20 minutes to complete the
quiz (timed test). 'Force Completion' is OFF (in case their computer crashes but for less than 20
mins).
If there is a system-wide (or other significant) technical failure for more than an hour or so on the
Friday (due date), the deadline is extend.
NOTE: In semester 2 we are trying a slightly different system for quizzes. They only have to attempt
all the questions on the each weekly quiz (within the week) to get full marks for that week. This is to
make the quizzes to be even more formative than summative so students can track how they are
going without being penalised for missing a confusing multiple choice question (allows us to have
not been 100% perfect in screening the test bank questions either). They can repeat the test as
many times as they want.
Weekly Turn-it-in assignment (Turnitin)
Only the best 8 out of 11 (to allow for minor or idiosyncratic technical or personal issues)
submissions are used and are in total worth 25% of the overall course assessment.
Only one submission portal is 'available' at any time. Each submission portal is open for one week
and due at 3pm Friday (while university services and IT support are open).
Students submit at least 200 words of typed text but have a variety of options for including diagrams
(take a photo/scan hand drawn diagrams and paste into text document, use free electronic graphing
tools and insert). If there is a system-wide (or other significant) technical failure for more than an
hour or so on the Friday (due date), the deadline is extend.
Case Study 2
Course: Resource and Environmental Economics
Enrolment: 90 upper undergraduate students
Online assessment: Journal and Project
MyUni Tool: MyUni Journal, Turnitin
Journal (Journal Tool)
Best 6 out of 8 'weekly' journal entries using the MyUni journal tool, in total worth 10% of the overall
course assessment. In hindsight, I would not have used the MyUni journal tool because I have found
that I prefer the e-marking functionality of Turnitin. Also, some students were confused by having
two types of online tools for written assessment.
Project (Turnitin)
Students were required to submit this in two parts. The "Proposal" was due as a Turnitin assignment,
worth 5%. The final report due was also submitted as a Turnitin assignment, worth 10%. Due time
was 3pm Thursday. The students were able to submit after the due date/time, but a 20% penalty
per day late would be applied (in reality I only penalised if it was submitted after midnight). Next
time, I will also remind the students to keep their Turnitin receipts.
Case Study 3
Course: Level 1 Biology
Enrolment: 1000 first year students
Online assessment: Topic tests, Pre-laboratory quiz, Group Practical Worksheets, Individual Report
MyUni Tool: MyUni Test (quiz), MyUni Test Pools, Turnitin
Topic Tests (MyUni Test and Test Pools)
Students complete a topic test using the MyUni Test (quiz) tool. The test is open book. Students have
one week to complete the test and are given two attempts, the better of the scores is recorded. The
test contains 15 questions – each question is taken from a pool of 10 (using MyUni Test Pools).
Students have two topic tests during the semester, each is worth 5%.
Pre-laboratory Quiz (MyUni Test)
Students complete a pre-laboratory quiz to prepare for a laboratory session. Students are first
presented with preamble content (including videos) and then respond to 10 related questions.
Students complete 5 pre-laboratory quizzes during the semester. Each quiz is worth 1%.
Given that we cannot validate the identity of the individual completing the quiz, we limit the
weighting of an individual test to a maximum of 5%. Having a mechanism to validate the user would
allow us to use this format for higher stakes assessment items.
We had a few cross platform problems with the tests/quizzes, especially with video formats and
“hotspot” questions – the display varies between Mac, Windows, mobile (e.g. iPad). It is important
to provide specifics to students about internet browsers etc. when using a variety of media and
question types.
Group Practical Worksheets (Turnitin)
Students in the laboratory sessions work in pairs. The instructions and worksheets are provided as
OneNote files. The students complete the worksheets during the session and submit a PDF copy via
Turnitin. The worksheet is assessed using online tools within Turnitin.
One issue is that only the student who submits the assignment to Turnitin can view the feedback
and we need to manually transfer the mark to the partner student. This is done 4 times per semester
for 500 pairs and represents additional work and the potential for human error. The four
assessments represent a combined 18% of the semester grade. Having a facility within Turnitin to
register both students as authors would be a major advance.
Individual Report (Turnitin)
We also use Turnitin for individual report/essay work where we use Turnitin’s Originality Report for
plagiarism checking. This occurs once per semester for 1000 students and represents 7% of the
semester mark.
Case Study 4
Course: Mathematics 1A
Enrolment: 800 first year students in first semester
Online assessment: Weekly Maple TA assignments, Maple TA mid-semester test
MyUni tools used: Maple TA
Weekly Maple TA assignments
Students are given 11 weekly assignments, the first due in Week 3. These assignments are typically
made available to students on Tuesday and due the following Monday.
Due time is 4pm to help manage any problems that Technology Services could assist with.
The 11 assignments combined are worth a total of 10% of the final course mark. (Another 5% comes
from fortnightly short paper written assignments.)
Students can access the assignments as many times as they like during the week that the assignment
is open, and save their progress as they go.
Students are permitted to check their answers to questions immediately, getting tick/cross feedback
per question or question part. Students are then able to change their answer and attempt to gain
full marks. There is no penalty for multiple attempts.
Students are provided a syntax practice assignment in Week 1, primarily to familiarise them with
how to enter answers into Maple TA (in particular computer syntax for mathematics), successful
completion of which is a necessary requirement for access to Assignment 1.
All questions are parameterised so that each student gets a different version of the assignment. The
amount of differences varies depending upon the question, but all versions assess the same concept
or technique and all are constructed to be of equivalent difficulty.
In the event of a system failure (MyUni or the Maple TA server) the deadline for the whole class
might be extended, based on the timing and duration of the outage.
Individual student extensions are not offered because this is not something that is offered by Maple
TA. Upon receipt of documentation (a medical certificate say), students are exempted from that
assignment. There are (unresolved) issues around providing support on weekends.
Mid Semester Maple TA Test
This is an invigilated test, conducted in computer labs throughout Week 6 (~17 sessions). The test is
worth 15% of the final mark. Students enrol into the lab at the start of semester.
The test is IP restricted, so that it can only be accessed from computers in the appropriate lab(s).
In contrast to the weekly assignments, questions in the test are primarily multiple choice/selection
or numeric.
Each question is parameterised or selected from a pool, so that each students get a slightly different
version, but of equivalent difficulty.
Students have 45 minutes to complete the test, which typically consists of 15-20 short questions.
Timing starts when students click on the test in the computer lab.
In the event of a class-wide outage, backup paper tests are administered.
A replacement test session is organised for the week following the test week, for students who
supply medical documentation, or who were too late, or who did not have photo ID. After this
session later cases are dealt with individually.
Students are able to review their tests after all students have completed it. Quite a time consuming
undertaking for everyone involved.
Case Study 5
Course: Psychology 1 A/B
Enrolment: 700 first year students
Online assessment: Module Assessment Examinations (MAEs), Major Assignment
MyUni Tool: Textbook publisher’s Online Assessment (integrated with MyUni), Turnitin
MAEs (Textbook publisher’s tool integrated with MyUni)
Both Psychology 1A and 1B are comprised of six topic modules, each made up of five lectures. The
students’ understanding of each of these modules is assessed via an online MCQ (Multiple Choice
Question) test. Each student is given 30 questions randomly drawn from a test bank of 100-200
questions.
We make the MAEs available for at least two weeks, and the students can take as long as they need
to complete the task. There is no time limit aside from this, but once they have submitted their MAE
they cannot change their answers. They receive immediate feedback regarding their choices and are
referred to specific pages in the textbook if they make an error.
We tend not to give extensions to the MAEs except in truly exceptional circumstances. While we
have experienced some minor disruptions of access to MyUni on the due dates (one to two hours
maximum), the period of time available to the students to complete the MAEs is such that we have
not had to extend any deadlines. Further, the students are given fair warning that they should
complete the MAEs well before the deadline (in each case this is on a Friday at 11:59pm). We also
send a reminder email that the assignment is due via MyUni Announcements on the Monday prior
to the due date.
The only problems that we have encountered so far have been some minor errors with the coding of
questions or references to page numbers in the feedback. However these are easy to adjust and
given that this is the first year that we have been using the test banks we do not anticipate any
similar problems in the future.
Major Assignment (Turnitin)
In both Psychology 1A and 1B the students complete a major assignment that comprises 20% of their
Semester grade. In each case we require the students to submit their assignment online using
Turnitin.