Numbas e-assessment in Covid times
Chris Graham
Director of E-Learning
School of Maths, Stats & Physics, Newcastle University
This talk
About Numbas
How we've used Numbas during remote teaching
About Numbas
A web-based e-assessment system designed for mathematical subjects.
Developed at Newcastle University for 10 years.
Free and open source.
Used around the world.
Why use maths e-assessment?
Online assessment of procedural, mathematical questions has two golden features:
🏆 Instant feedback
Get immediate feedback and receive a full solution for each instance of the question.
🏆 Randomisation
Practise similar questions over and over again.
What do we use Numbas for?
Pre-entry material, transition, diagnostic tests, in-course practice, in-course assessment, final exams...
A quick look at a Numbas test:
Units example
Remote learning trends
A few trends from the past year:
- More diverse and extensive formative assessment
- Dramatic increase in use in engineering
- Remote 'labs' using Numbas
- Hybrid tests
- Final exams
Formative assessment
We've seen more formative use; more appreciation of the "weekly quiz".
Increasing use in physics, engineering, chemistry...
More diverse applications to ask questions involving Python, R, MATLAB, SPSS, Minitab.
Engineering uptake
Remote Labs
Hybrid assessments
Used for in-course assessment and final exams
Typically 60-80% auto-marked. Focus manual marking where it is needed.
Final exams
"4 in 24" hybrid format used across all of our stage 1 modules.
The format of the assessment(s) was easy to understand
The flexibility of starting at any point in the 24 hours was useful to me
I had enough time to complete the assessment questions
I worked continuously on the assessment(s) during my timed period
Feedback
I felt like the university did a good job at giving us a flexible exam schedule in order to make up for the limitations of technology and some of the things that can go wrong
The flexibility of beginning time is so useful especially when many students have jobs etc
being able to start whenever you want within the 24hrs gives much more flexibility and allows you to better plan out revision.
I think the problem with the assessments is the fact that once you start you cant stop at all, with many people who aren't in work or who have meetings working at home it makes a lot of distractions that cant really be avoided
4 hours was plenty time to Google and try figuring it out with friends
Using Numbas
Mathcentre public Numbas Editor at numbas.mathcentre.ac.uk
Open source LTI tool at numbas-lti-provider.readthedocs.io
Public Numbas Editor
Open to everyone.
5,000+ users at 1,000+ institutions registered on public editor.
Collect ready-made questions into a custom test.
8,000+ questions and exams released for free reuse under an open access licence. Translated into 15 languages.
Or write your own.
Thanks for listening
Contact me at christopher.graham@newcastle.ac.uk
Useful links:
- Numbas Website numbas.org.uk
- Numbas Editor numbas.mathcentre.ac.uk