Feedback received during pilot phase from: 168 students // 6 teaching assistants // 3 instructors at UBC
- Feedback received during pilot phase from: 168 students // 6 teaching assistants // 3 instructors at UBC
- Students, teaching assistants, and instructors participated in surveys, focus groups, and/or one-on-one interviews, and these revealed common practices that resulted in a more positive learning experience for students, regardless of discipline. (More detail on this evaluation process and its outcomes will be available later this year in Teaching & Learning Inquiry.)
+Students, teaching assistants, and instructors participated in surveys, focus groups, and/or one-on-one interviews, and these revealed common practices that resulted in a more positive learning experience for students, regardless of discipline. (More detail on this evaluation process and its outcomes is available in this Teaching & Learning Inquiry article .)
As with any learning activity, how assignments were introduced, designed, and integrated in the course significantly impacted the student experience with ComPAIR.
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@Students completed three similar ComPAIR assignments. Each was a part of answering a "Big Picture" question, which involved participating in a series of tasks that mirror Polya's Method for problem solving: 1) understand the question 2) make a plan 3) execute the plan and 4) reflect on your answer. For the first two steps, students collaborated in an external forum. The third and fourth steps took place in ComPAIR. Students executed their plan by submitting a written solution—a combination of calculation and exposition, 3-6 pages long—and reflected on their answer by completing three comparisons (using the default criterion) and a self-evaluation.
Two rubrics provided to the students were key to making this process work. The first told them how to assess each other's work during the comparisons, providing clear expectations for the written solutions and how to determine which of two assignments was better. The second rubric was what the instructor or TA used to determine students' grades on the overall assignment. This rubric graded participation in the forum and whether students completed the work in ComPAIR. Most importantly, it graded the quality of the feedback students gave during comparison. This meant students knew grades were not directly linked to the content of their submission; grading was based upon their contributions to the process.
- +"The 'Big Picture' questions are the heart of this course and it would be impossible to run them without ComPAIR. ComPAIR allows students to read and evaluate their peer's work without the full cognitive load of doing full peer grading. Students can read 6 assignments and get exposure to many viewpoints, while still exercising their peer evaluation skills. The direct comparisons themselves also allow students to more acutely see what separates good work from better work. It's an invaluable tool for getting students to explore the grey areas in science."