Buenas prácticas de los cuestionarios

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Prácticas de cuestionario efectivas

Como hemos visto, el módulo quiz( cuestionario) de Moodle es una potente y flexible herramienta para monitorizar y diagnosticar la ejecución de los alumnos ante ciertos tipos de conocimientos. Utilizando adecuadamente esta herramienta puede incrementar la eficacia de su curso, y promocionar su ejecución por parte de los alumnos. Mientras un juego por computador tiene una ejecución diferente que muchos valoran muy positivamente, ello brinda una apreciable ventana al pensamiento del alumno, especialmente si se utilizan buenas extrategias, y un poco de creatividad( Nota del traductor: Un alumno motivado es un alumno más receptivo a la adquisición de nuevos conocimientos).

Estrategias en un cuestionario

Por supuesto, utilizando el módulo quiz( cuestionario) de manera efectiva adquiere práctica y buen hacer. Lo primero es usar eficientes estrategias de diseño de preguntas. Si consigue buenas preguntas, tendrá datos útiles sobre la evolución de sus alumnos y el grado de asimilación del material por su parte. De acuerdo, tratar en clase sobre ello también sirve. Hay un montón de literatura sobre la eficaz valoración del diseño disponible. Le aclararé un poco algunas de las ideas más importantes.

1. Una cada pregunta a un objetivo del curso. Después de todo, quiere saber si sus alumnos están alcanzando los objetivos del cuso, ¿por qué no preguntarles directamente?
2. Intente realizar múltiples preguntas sobre cada concepto importante en la clase. Esto le proporcionará más datos puntuales sobre el nivel de comprensión de sus alumnos.
3. Cuando escriba una pregunta de elección múltiple, asegúrese de que cada respuesta errónea representa un pensamiento equivocado común. Esto le ayudará a evaluar el pensamiento de los alumnos y a eliminar aciertos al hazar.
4. Escriba preguntas que obliguen a sus alumnos a pensar en diferentes niveles de dificultad. Incluya alguna pregunta de refuerzo, alguna de comprensión y alguna de aplicación de razonamiento y análisis. Puede determinar si sus alumnos tienen problemas de razonamiento. Pueden recordar los contenidos, pero no aplicarlos?
5. Compruebe sus preguntas. Después de que haya establecido un inicial banco de preguntas, utilice la información del sistema para determinar qué preguntas son útiles, y cuales no. Cuando escriba nuevas preguntas, póngalas una puntuación baja y testéelas ( manteniéndolas un poco de tiempo en el cuestionario) para establecer su fiabilidad.

Una vez tenga comprobado un banco de preguntas bien desarrolladas, asegúrese de utilizar los informes del cuestionario y estadísticas para controlar el desarrollo de las clases. Los informes detallados y las estadísticas disponibles por usted son valiosas herramientas para entender el grado de comprensión del contenido por parte de sus alumnos.

Cuestionarios creativos

Con el módulo quiz de Moodle, es fácil utilizar estrategias de valoración perfectas en el campo educacional que podrían ser difíciles de implementar con lápiz y papel. La mayoría de la gente piensa en los test como algo raro, actividad de alto riesgo, para parciales y finales. Mejores estrategias implican valoraciones habituales, de bajo riesgo, que usted y sus alumnos puedan utilizar como guía de su avance a lo largo del curso o el semestre.

La creación de una serie de pequeños mini-test le proporciona un sistema muy flexible para medir la ejecución y retención de los estudiantes apuntados a su clase. Aquí tiene unas pocas ideas para cuestionarios rápidos que pueda utilizar como parte de una más amplia estrategia de valoración.

Verificaciones de contenidos(Chapter Checks)

Conseguir que los alumnos completen sus lecturas recomendadas tiene que ser una de las tareas motivadoras más duras en educación. La lectura es crítica para la comprensión de la mayoría de los contenidos, y fundamental para triunfar en muchas materias. El problema para la mayoría de los estudiantes es que no hay un premio o castigo inmediato para los que hacen "peyas" con sus lecturas obligadas( no leen ni el libro de texto). Si no se ha hecho la lectura para un debate en clase, uno puede o bien mantenerse callado( no intervenir), o bien, como suele hacerse alguna vez, "correrse la clase"(wing it by skimming in class). Si está en un curso como lector( tutor), no es casi necesario insistir en las lecturas ya que en las clases se cubren generalmente todos los contenidos.

Creating a little mini-test for each reading assignment solves a number of problems. First, it encourages students to do the reading so they can do well on the quiz. Second, it gives the students feedback on how well they understood the reading assignment. Third, it give you data about what aspects of the reading students found confusing, and which they have already mastered so you can focus your class activities.

For a reading mini-test, I would recommend setting a limited time quiz students can only take once. Because it’s a low-stakes activity you want students to use for self-assessment, I would also display feedback and correct answers. If you’re concerned about students sharing answers after they’ve taken the quiz, randomize the question and answer order. If you have a test bank, make some of the questions random as well. As an additional assignment, students should write down one question about a question they got wrong, and bring it to class.

Test Practice

They key to effective practice is to have a realistic practice environment. Many students worry about tests, especially high-stakes tests, because they have no idea what to expect. What question format will you use? How detailed will the questions be? What should they study?

You can help alleviate test anxiety by creating a practice test students can take to help answer these questions. These tests are usually based on old questions similar to the current test questions. Use last years final as an example test, which will force you into the practice of writing new questions every year. This is a good idea anyway, as you can be sure someone has a copy of last year’s test they are sharing with others.

To set up a practice test, I’d create a zero point test with questions from the year before in random order with random answers. I would also allow students to take the test as many times as they’d like so they can test themselves as much as they need. Display feedback, but not correct answers so it presents more of a challenge.

Data gathering

As an expert, you know a lot about your field. Your challenge as a teacher is to translate your knowledge for a novice who doesn’t share your conceptual structure or experience. An example or lecture you think is brilliant may leave your students completely confused. It can be hard to tell what students really understand and what’s leaving them baffled.

A data-gathering quiz is similar to a chapter check, but it takes place after a class meeting or lecture. Your goal is to quickly get some feedback on student understanding of a lecture. What did they really understand? What do you need to spend more time on? I’ve found many instructors have trouble gauging what students find difficult, and what the students find so easy they are bored.

Setting up a post-class data-gathering quiz is similar to creating a chapter check. Set the quiz for a limited time, like a day or two before the next meeting. Allow them to take it once and display feedback and correct answers.

Quiz security and cheating

Of course, online testing also presents another chance for the cheaters in your classes to try to game the system. Most online quizzes are meant to be taken at home, or at least outside of class. Students can download the questions and print them out. They can take the tests with other students, or while reading their textbooks.

Fortunately, you can counter many of these strategies, making them more trouble than they are worth to the students. Let’s look at a few strategies for countering most cheating schemes

Printing and sharing questions

If you display feedback and correct answers, students can print the results page and share it with their friends. Or they can simply print the questions themselves directly from the quiz. The key to discouraging this behavior is to randomize the question order and the answer order. It makes the printouts a lot less useful. Creating larger question banks and giving tests with random subsets is also an effective strategy. If students can only print a small number of questions at a time, they will need to view the test again and again, then sort the questions to eliminate duplicates.

Assume there will be printed copies of your questions available to students who want them. Most instructors don’t realize students frequently have copies of old paper based tests, and electronic test delivery is another way for students to get copies of the questions. I know one professor who had over 1100 questions in his online test bank. At the end of the semester, he confiscated a printout from a student. It had every question with the correct answer, neatly formatted and divided by textbook chapter. We decided if students wanted to memorize 1100 questions and answers to the level where they could answer a small number of them displayed at random, then they would have learned more than if they had just studied. Of course, we used timed quizzes and other strategies to minimize using the print-out as a reference manual.

Using the textbook

Students will frequently look up the answer to questions in the textbook or a reading. If you are giving a chapter check quiz, then this is what you want them to do. Otherwise, you need to come up with creative ways of making the textbook less directly useful. Timed quizzes are the single most effective tool for eliminating this strategy. A timed quiz requires the students answer the questions in a certain amount of time. If you give enough questions and make the time short enough, they won’t have time to look up all the answers. I usually give about 30 seconds per multiple-choice question. If they answer them faster and have time to look up some answers afterward, I figure they knew enough to deserve to look up an answer or two.

Asking students to apply their knowledge to novel situation can also make a difference. Synthesis and application questions can’t be looked up. Students have to understand the material and apply it creatively to answer the questions. So while they may take the time to review the text, they will still need to try to understand what they’ve read to successfully answer the question.

Working with friends

If your students are on the same campus, they may get together in a lab and try to take the quiz together. This is an easy strategy to thwart with random question order, random answer order and questions randomly pulled from a test bank. If my screen doesn’t look like yours, then it’s harder for us to quickly answer all of the questions. A timed quiz also makes it harder for the two of us to cheat if we have different questions we only have a short amount of time to answer.

Have someone else take the test

The old adage goes “On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog”, and no one knows who is actually taking the test. Students will sometimes pay classmates, or others who have taken the course in the past, to take online quizzes for them. There are two ways to counter this strategy. One, have an occasional proctored exam where students need to show ID. If they haven’t taken the quizzes or done the work until then, they will do poorly on the proctored exam. To eliminate current classmates from taking each others quizzes, only make them available for a short time. You could require everyone take the test within a 2 or 4-hour block. If the test is properly randomized, it will be very difficult to take it more than once during the testing period. The test taker will worry about their own grade first, then about their employers grade.

Obviously, there are many strategies students can use to cheat. While it would be naïve to assume there isn’t cheating, the vast majority of your students want to succeed on their own merits. The anonymity of the online environment may open up new avenues for the cheaters, but it’s not really much different from your face-to-face classes. A few people will go to great lengths to cheat, but most will be honest as long as it’s not too easy to get away with it. A few precautions will eliminate most of the easy cheats, and the classic strategies will work for the others.

Nota: Esta página contiene extractos del libro Using Moodle de Jason Cole.