Adaptive Quizzing:
Using Quizzes to Help Your Students Learn
Mark A. Laumakis, Ph.D.
Lecturer, Department of Psychology
Faculty in Residence, Instructional Technology Services
mlaumakis@mail.sdsu.edu
Our Agenda
• Adaptive Learning: what is it?
• LearningCurve demonstration
• Data on Adaptive Quizzing in Psych 101
What is Adaptive Learning?
• A couple of definitions (from InsideHigherEd.com)
1.
“data-driven tools that can help professors mold coursework
around individual students’ abilities”
2.
“Adaptive learning takes a sophisticated, data-driven and in some
cases, non-linear approach to instruction and remediation,
adjusting to a learner’s interactions and demonstrated performance
level and subsequently anticipating what types of content and
resources learners’ need at a specific point in time to make
progress” (http://bit.ly/10tmKIi)
What is Adaptive Quizzing?
• Conventional Quizzing
– Presents the same standard set of questions to
student, irrespective of his/her strengths and
weaknesses
• Adaptive Quizzing
– Customizes questions based on what students
know and don’t know
– Pushes students to the next level of understanding
What is LearningCurve?
• One of several adaptive quizzing tools
available from publishers today
• Uses a game-like interface to guide students
through a series of questions catered to their
individual level of understanding
LearningCurve Demo
• LearningCurve Demo
Psych 101 Pilot – Spring 2012
• Two sections of Intro Psych
– 800 TTH section: 273 students (TRADITIONAL)
– 930 TTH section: 491 students (LEARNINGCURVE)
• 800 section completed conventional online quizzes
– 14 pre-lecture quizzes & 14 mastery quizzes
– 5 points for each of up to 12 quizzes in each category
completed with a score of 65% or more
– Unlimited attempts
– Maximum point total = 120 points (out of 700 in course)
Psych 101 Pilot – Spring 2012
• 930 section completed 3-5 LearningCurve
activities for each of 14 chapters
• LearningCurve activities were worth 10 points
per chapter
• Maximum point total = 120 points (out of 700 in course)
Spring 2012 LearningCurve Data
140
120
120
100
101.5
100
88.9
80
Traditional
60
1.8% of course grade
2.9% of course grade
40
20
0
Mean
Median
LearningCurve
Spring 2012 LearningCurve Data
Total number of quiz questions completed
1800
1661
1600
1400
1200
1000
Traditional
800
600
LearningCurve
545
400
200
0
Traditional
LearningCurve
LearningCurve: Feel the Burn
• % of students who did MORE than the minimum
required to get all their quiz points
60%
56%
50%
40%
30%
27%
Traditional
Learning Curve
20%
10%
0%
Traditional
Learning Curve
Psych 101 Test and Spring 2012
Course Grade Results
LearningCurve Quizzing
Traditional Quizzing
LearningCurve
Outperformance
Test 1
74.1
71.0
+3.1
Test 2
72.9
69.1
+3.8
Test 3
71.9
68.8
+3.1
Test 4
80.4
77.4
+3.0
Course
Total
(mean)
74.8%
68.1%
+6.7%
Course
Total
(median)
78.3%
74.1%
+4.2%
Spring 2012
Course Grade Distributions
35%
32%
30%
28%
25%
30%
26%
22%
20%
15%
10%
17%
15%
12%
Traditional
11%
7%
5%
0%
A
B
C
D
F
LearningCurve
Psych 101 Test and
Course Grade Results
Spring 2012 with
LearningCurve
Spring 2011 WITHOUT
LearningCurve
LearningCurve
Outperformance
Test 1
74.1
69.3
+4.8
Test 2
72.9
70.7
+2.2
Test 3
71.9
67.4
+4.5
Test 4
80.4
77.3
+3.1
Course
Total
(mean)
74.8%
70.4%
+4.4%
Course
Total
(median)
78.3%
74.6%
+3.7%
Additional Psych 101 Test and
Course Grade Results
Fall 2012 8 a.m. with
LearningCurve
Fall 2011 8 a.m.
WITHOUT
LearningCurve
LearningCurve
Outperformance
Test 1
85.8
87.1
-1.3
Test 2
86.0
86.4
-0.4
Test 3
84.2
85.1
-0.9
Test 4
96.7
95.6
+1.1
Course
Total
(mean)
72.2%
73.8%
-1.6%
Course
Total
(median)
77.3%
77.0%
+0.3%
Psych 101 Test and
Course Grade Results
Fall 2012 9:30 a.m.
with LearningCurve
Fall 2011 9:30 a.m.
WITHOUT
LearningCurve
LearningCurve
Outperformance
Test 1
89.2
88.8
+0.4
Test 2
89.6
89.6
+0.0
Test 3
86.9
89.0
-2.1
Test 4
97.6
98.1
-0.5
Course
Total
(mean)
77.1%
76.5%
+0.6%
Course
Total
(median)
80.4%
81.1%
-0.7%
Fall 2012 Course Grade Distributions
as a Function of LC Completion Status
50%
45%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
30%
25%
23%
25%
22%
20%
20%
15%
10%
5%
7%
2%
1%
0%
A
B
C
D
F
All LC Points
Incomplete LC
Questions?