Not only in teaching programming but in designing custom educational courseware. Who wants the student to have ONLY simple multiple-guess questions to work with?
Life doesn't come with a series of four exclusive-or questions tattooed across it, so why give student this unrealistic view of the real world, when a little work in Rev will permit far more challenging interactivity?
Agreed wholeheartedly. Education-related work was the largest single set of tasks folks did with HyperCard, and for all the tools that have come out since there remains an unaddressed gap which may be an ideal focus for DreamCard.
But moving beyond simple questions models like multiple choice is difficult. The AICC courseware interoperability standard describes almost a dozen question models, but most are variants of "choose one", "choose many", "closest match", etc., sometimes enlived by using drag-and-drop as the mechanism for applying the answer but not substantially different from what gets tested with a simple multiple choice in terms of truer assessment of what's been learned.
The challenge is to find more open-ended question models which can still be assessed by the computer. For example, the most open-ended question is an essay, but I sure don't want to write the routine that scores essays. :)
What sorts of enhanced question models do you think would be ideal for computer-based learning?
Richard, Marian,
General information on computer-based assessment can be found on the CAA website (Computer assisted assessment centre, UK, University of Luton), http://www.caacentre.ac.uk/ or on the Pass-it Scotland website, http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/projects/passit/. The later considers a wide range of activities, from situations where candidates word process short answer responses or essays and submit these to markers by e-mail, to those where candidates take computer-delivered tests online and their responses are marked through automated marking systems. I have a (long) list of references that I am ready to share, if you are interested.
Yes, I agree that Revolution could be the ideal tool to let teachers easily develop complex formative exercises with no requirement of technical skills. At least, it's what I argue in a grant I submitted recently. You can find the full description at : http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/mlange/Elearning/.
Unfortunately, that project did not get funded (at this stage, Universities are more concerned about speeding up the exam process with automatized summative -- multiple choices -- assessment)...
This means I will have to find other ways to get me a full license for revolution. Damn, I want it so badly, Revolution is the programming language of my dreams. It's ideal for persons like me who have zillions of (small) projects to realize, but do not have enough spare time to juggle with complex computer languages. So easy to use and program, and yet so powerful! I tried to convince my university to buy a site license, but no luck there (the person I contacted said that she did not find the time to try the product one month later after my request). If you have a "selling" portfolio, I would be more than happy to forward it to them. Otherwise, no chance to get an HE education price? Yes, I agree, revolution is worth more than its current price... but HE people often have no plan to sell the products they develop. Selling it to a lower price to HE individuals may have them ask their university to buy a site or university-wide license. Also, HE people are creative, productive, often happy to make their codes public and may contribute to the development of a gallery of small programs. Seriously, the product, Revolution, is great, but the shop-window is currently of little appeal. Do you know of konfabulator (http://www.konfabulator.com/)? They are highly succesfull despite the fact that they are exactly the opposite... limited potential but dramatic shop-window full of jaw dropping little time-savers or friendly desktop fillers (yes, most of them are useless, but Konfabulator lets you develop small applications, in one or two days and proudly show it on the net, which apparently appeals customers). I suspect that your decision to develop a less expensive player is a step in that direction. But its not a good option for a lecturer who cannot ask each one of his students to buy a player to benefit from the courseware material he has developed.
I should maybe take this opportunity to add that the university lecturer I am is seriously considering moving to a career of developing tools for teachers (so many university teachers do not even know about HTML, believe me, there is a HUGE market for tools that let them easily develop courseware material and put it on the web, as encouraged more and more by Universities) and courseware for students (believe me, there is a HUGE market there too... even more when small tablets/ebooks will begin to appear). If anybody is interested in an association or has a job to propose, I would be delighted to hear from them. I currently live in Edinburgh, Scotland (and I have credentials, as I won an award for best educational website).
Cheers, Marielle
"Imagine a school with children that can read or write, but with teachers who cannot, and you have a metaphor of the Information Age in which we live. " -Peter Cochrane
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Marielle Lange (PhD), Psycholinguistics, Lecturer in Psychology and Informatics
University of Edinburgh, UK
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/mlange/ Calendar: http://www.icalx.com/html/mlange/week.php?cal=Work
Contact details: Dept of Psychology / 7 George Square / EH8 9JZ / UK / Tel: 44 131 650 3444 / Fax: 44 131 650 6626 ANC institute / 5 Forrest Hill / EH1 2QL / UK / Tel: 44 131 650 3098 / Fax: 44 131 650 6899 _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
