Online Materials for Practicing and Evaluating Statistics Knowledge
e-Learning Formative Evaluation in Computer Practices
N. Ruiz Fuentes, J. C. Ruiz Molina, R. M. Fernández Alcalá and J. Navarro Moreno
Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of Jaén, Jaén, Spain
Keywords: Guided Practices, Online Evaluation Tools, Statistics Software.
Abstract: Auto-learning and self-evaluation are two main topics in ECTS environments. In this framework, new
technologies are widely used to develop online tools which provide students the possibility of practicing and
evaluating their learning progress. With this idea, guided practical for the application of the basic statistical
techniques on a computer and self-evaluation tests have been developed for students of Physiotherapy
Degree within a Learning Innovation Project supported by the University of Jaén (Spain). This paper
reports our experience in the implementation of this learning material and evaluation practice in the
teaching-learning process during the last academic year.
1 INTRODUCTION
From the development of the European Higher
Education Area (EHEA), a new university learning
system has arisen where new technologies are
widely used in an educational model more focused
on the student (see, e.g., Jolliffe et al., 2001;
Martínez et al., 2010; Jiménez et al., 2011; Craig,
2012). In this model, the teaching-learning process is
the heart of education, where the teacher, the leaner,
the curriculum, among other variables, are organized
in a systematic way to attain predetermined goals
and objectives (Bissa and Sharma, 2010).
Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) constitute an unbeatable tool to prepare
students in the use of statistical knowledge for the
analysis, diagnosis and resolution of problems. In
fact, a great effort has been made to elaborate
learning materials which support the teaching
presence and make the learning process more
attractive to students. In this framework, the auto-
learning and self-evaluation are two main topics in
ECTS environments that motivate to develop novel
tools that help students in their teaching-learning
process (see, for example, Caballero et al., 2005;
Olmo et al., 2009; or Jiménez et al., 2011, among
others).
On the other hand, Statistical Software obviously
is a computer tool less commonly used by people but
very useful to process statistical data. In fact, the use
of this type of software allows the practical
application of the techniques exposed in the
theoretical lessons and prepares students to their
future professional activity (Godino, 1995).
For these practices on computer, it is really
useful for students to have support materials helpful
in their teaching-learning process.
With this idea, and within a Learning Innovation
Project that is being developed in the Physiotherapy
Degree of the University of Jaén in Spain, we
propose guided practical to solve questions related to
those statistical techniques that have been studied in
master classes, hence they practice with the contents
of the subject avoiding calculus and focusing on
interpretations of results.
Moreover, an important part of guided practices
is “checking for understanding”. Different
researches on formative assessment and feedback
have shown how these processes can help students
in their own learning. For that, it is necessary that
teachers organise assessments and support learning
which promote an active rather a passive role of the
student in this task. Examples of evaluation systems
encouraging the automatic feedback can be found in
the literature (Wang, 2012); (Queiros and Leal
2012); (Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006)
In this framework, self-evaluation tests allow the
student to check how the learning procedure is
carrying out. This provides a feedback for students
because, once they have finished the test, they can
see the obtained score and the correct solution for
250
Ruiz Fuentes N., C. Ruiz Molina J., Fernandez Alcalá R. and Navarro Moreno J..
Online Materials for Practicing and Evaluating Statistics Knowledge - e-Learning Formative Evaluation in Computer Practices.
DOI: 10.5220/0004385702500253
In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2013), pages 250-253
ISBN: 978-989-8565-53-2
Copyright
c
2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
each question. The objective is to provide students
of Physiotherapy Degree an opportunity to develop
and improve their knowledge on this subject by
using it.
The experience was to create a bank of questions
to elaborate follow up questionnaires and evaluation
tests for each lesson, so the student knows the
degree of achievement of the course objectives and
it suppose a feedback on the learning process.
In addition, the teaching process is evaluated and
it is improved, from the students answer to items
regarding a proposed survey. The results of the poll
came out the utility of the software, the adequacy of
the questions to the contents, the advantage of
feedback to correct conceptual, procedure or
interpretation errors. The students were grateful for
practical problems related to their field.
This positive belief on the project motivates us to
continue looking for real data mainly on health
sciences and to incorporate new questions to our
banks to enrich them and to bring statistic tools
closer to our students; demystifying topics over them
and showing that it is a useful science rounding us
that must be known and properly applied.
2 WORK DESCRIPTION
Although the use of computer tools is widely
extended nowdays, the practices on computer in the
Statistic subject of the Physiotherapy Degree
suppose a challenge for students since, in general,
this is their first experience with statistical software.
Then, as it has been indicated above, the
objective of our Learning Innovation Project was to
elaborate guided practical besides bank of questions
to be used in tests for evaluating the computer
practices with Statgraphics in this subject. And, for
this purpose, the ILIAS Virtual Learning Platform
gives a suitable environment to develop these
materials which can be used by students in any
moment and place.
On the one hand, guided practices pretend
showing and releasing the students to solve practical
cases at hand by using the theoretical statistical
concepts studied in the subject and using statistical
software. The idea is to model the way a problem
comes to a solution. On the other hand, evaluation
and self-evaluation tests allow the students to assess
their own performance while they have the
opportunity to obtain feedback from their own
answers.
Computer practices for the subject “Statistic” of
the Physiotherapy Degree are structured in six
sessions of about 2.5 hours each:
Session 1. Introduction to the use of Statgraphics
Session 2. Descriptive analysis of data
Session 3. Probability distributions
Session 4. Parametric statistical inference on one
variable
Session 5. Parametric statistical inference on two
variables
Session 6. The linear regression model
So, one guided practical, a bank of questions and
a self evaluation test have been created for every
practice session.
The methodology followed in this project can be
summarized in the following steps:
1. Collection of Materials.
An exhaustive search and selection of materials
related to the resolution of statistic problems in
the Health Sciences field has been carried out.
Moreover, during the first weeks of the semester,
students filled out a survey prepared on purpose
to get real data of different variables in the
Physiotherapy field.
2. Design of Guided Practices.
One guided practice has been created for every
practice session, with the aim of showing
students the best way of solving different type of
exercises by the application of the theoretical
concepts studied in this part of the subject.
3. Elaboration of Banks of Questions in ILIAS.
For every practice session, a bank of questions
has been created in the ILIAS Virtual Learning
Platform with the answers to the exercises
proposed in this practice. ILIAS platform has
allowed us the use of different types of
questions: multiple choice, numeric response,
ordering, fill-in-the-blank, short answer or
matching questions, among others.
4. Layout of Self-evaluation Tests in ILIAS.
From the above banks of questions, different
self-evaluation tests have been performed
including the different types of questions allowed
by the ILIAS platform. The main aim of these
tests is that students can self-evaluate the
suitability of their results in the computer
practices.
These tests provide a feedback for students
because, once they have finished the test, they
can see the score obtained and the correct
solution for each question. Moreover, students
can repeat every test in any moment until they
get the desirable result.
Finally, an evaluation test, similar to the self-
evaluation tests given for every computersession,
was used in the final computer practices exam.
OnlineMaterialsforPracticingandEvaluatingStatisticsKnowledge-e-LearningFormativeEvaluationinComputer
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251
3 ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
AND CONCLUSIONS
The aim of this section is to show our experience in
the use of these materials in the subject “Statistics”
of the Physiotherapy Degree during the last
academic year 2011-2012.
During this academic year, the above described
materials were used to evaluate the part of the
assessment system corresponding to computer
practices which supposes a 30% of the final mark of
the student. With this methodology, the 70% of
students joined in the subject “Statistics” passed the
practices evaluation with a good mark.
Unfortunately, there is not any historical data for
comparison but it can be considered a satisfactory
percentage, taking into account the difficulty that
Statistical issues suppose for these students.
Furthermore, to evaluate the elaborated materials
and their utility in the evaluation process, students
were proposed to respond a survey created in the
ILIAS platform with question related to the
computer practices and their evaluation.
This survey was initially proposed to all students
joined to this course, i.e., over a whole of 81
students, but it was voluntarily filled out by 47 of
them. This fact supposes a participation percentage
of about 50.6%.
The items of this survey were structured in three
blocks related to:
1. the computer practices
2. the self-evaluation tests
3. the evaluation test for the computer practices
exam
Students might value each item with a mark from 1
(completely disagree) to 4 (completely agree).
The best valued items, with modal value of 4, were:
Computer practices fit with the theory.
The used software is accessible, user-friendly,
work environment, etc.
Computer practices have helped me to
understand the statistical concepts.
The questions in self-evaluation tests are
appropriated for the computer practice
developed.
The type of test is easy and comfortable to use
from the ILIAS platform
Questions in the evaluation test are adapted to
the computer practices solved during the sessions
and the self-evaluation tests.
On the other hand, the worst valued items, with a
modal value of 2 were two specific questions:
Clarity of some questions and lack of ambiguity.
Data used in computer practices are of interest in
the Physiotherapy field.
With respect to the first of these items we must
say that although this answer can be motivated by
the formulation of questions which motivate the
statistical reasoning, we think that they should be
revised in order to avoid any confusion.
On the other hand, the second issue highlights
that the exhaustive seeking of examples in the
Health Sciences environment has been insufficient
and unsatisfactory for the interests of our students
and a major effort should be done in this sense.
From students’ opinion, our general evaluation
of this experience is very positive. Moreover, we
would like to emphasize the generality of the
learning material presented here which can be used
as a learning support in many other compatible
subjects with basic statistics contents.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper has been supported by the Learning
Innovation Project PID46_201113.
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