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An assessment system to measure effectiveness of the General Physics Course |
The on-line assessment system, developed locally at UPR Cayey, organizes test data and results into four profiles: 1) student (response per question, possible alternate conception, number of correct answers per test dimension and others); 2) course section (distribution of student’s responses per question and alternative, dominant alternate conception per question, concentration factor, deviation factor, number of correct answers per test dimension, distribution of student’s responses per question by gender); 3) institution (all course sections in a given institution), and 4) semester (data and results for all institutions whose students took the test during a particular semester and year). These profiles provide information about the specific cognitive state of a particular student and the average cognitive state of a group of similar students. The system organizes and analyzes the data gathered for several years on the administration of a particular test. The results have been used to measure changes in the initial cognitive state of students entering a specific institution and the impact of curricular reform initiatives on this state.
To measure student learning, the student initial cognitive state is “measured” along three domains: concepts, processes and attitudes. Currently, the system includes ten assessment instruments: four concept-based (kinematics and Newtonian mechanics, dc circuits, electricity and magnetism), five process-based (measurements, formal reasoning, graphical representation of motion, problem solving), and one on students’ expectations of physics. Other multiple choice research tools have been translated into Spanish (basic math skills, equations as functional relationships, energy and momentum, heat and temperature, waves) and are being gradually incorporated into the online system.
STEM professors may access the system at: http://coas.cayey.upr.edu. Contact person is Prof. Luis Pérez at lperez@cayey.upr.edu
