User Stories
Moving Placement Tests to Anytime, Anywhere
Scott Sutherland, Mathematics Professor, SUNY Stony Brook
Challenge: With
time and resources in mind, to reduce the chaos and stress of their
placement exam process.
Solution: Automated, web-based testing
using Maple T.A.™
Results:
- Completely automated their placement test process
- Greatly reduced
the stress and chaos of registration day
- Students were better prepared
and felt better about the exam
- Allowed professors to concentrate on
the students and not the exam and timing
The Challenge
At the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, academic
success is as important to the university as it is to the students.
They want their students to succeed, and the first step to ensuring they
do is making sure they are enrolled in the proper classes. For this reason,
Stony Brook's mathematics department administers placement tests every
year to assess the student’s level of math knowledge and the
appropriate courses.
University administered placement tests are common practice, and normally
occur in the areas of mathematics and science. This, however, is where
the commonality leaves off, as the administration process for placement
exams differ for almost every university. Some perform the test at the
beginning of the summer, while some do it at the end or during orientation;
some have the students come in to the high schools or universities to
write it, while some send it to the students’ homes.
The resources required to administer the placement exams are substantial.
It requires professors to create the exam, a dozen or more proctors to
facilitate the exam, thousands of Scantron cards, staff to set up and
clean up after the exams, staff to feed the Scantron cards into the computer
or to hand grade the exams, etc.
Maple T.A. can address all of these schools and situations, as it automates
the entire process, including assessment through to diagnostics; enabling
the placement test to be done anytime, anywhere. Stony Brook University
is a perfect example of how Maple T.A. can substantially save time and
resources.
Stony Brook’s mathematics department has been giving a placement
test to every freshman and a large fraction of their transfer students
for 15 years. They’ve developed a series of multiple choice questions
ranging from arithmetic through to the end of single variable calculus.
The test is administered during orientation at the beginning of the
year using paper-based Scantron cards. For approximately 14 years, Stony
Brook University was faced with the logistical nightmare of conducting
the test, scanning and recording the grades in their student record,
and advising the appropriate course all in one morning, so the students
could register in the afternoon. Not only was this process harrowing
for the staff and faculty, the students often complained that they weren’t
prepared, that they didn’t know they had to write a test, and therefore,
the results did not represent their ability.
Stony Brook needed a better solution.
They wanted to be able to administer the placement test before the students
came to orientation, and they wanted the students to be as prepared as
possible for the test.
Solution: Maple T.A.
For Stony Brook, using Maple T.A. was a natural progression since the
math department has been using Maple™, the premier environment
for teaching, learning, and researching, for 10 years. Scott Sutherland,
a mathematics professor at Stony Brook, chose to work with Maple T.A.
for many reasons:
1. Simplicity of adoption. He could drop his existing questions in without
very much work, and without having to rewrite any of his questions. This
allowed him to concentrate on how he wanted the exam to be presented
to the students, rather than on getting the content and practice question
bank in place.
2. The potential of Maple T.A.. The variety of question types and options,
and the scalability of the program encompassed all the future plans and
possibilities that Scott saw, making it extremely attractive.
3. The adaptability of Maple T.A.. Scott didn’t want his students
to see the class module, since they weren’t in a class. He was
able to, through the flexibility of the Maple T.A. interface, adapt the
program to make it look the way he wanted and work in his setting, and
in the end help his students.
4. Compatibility with other programs and content. It was invaluable
to Scott that Maple T.A. was compatible with his existing publisher’s
textbook content. The ability to mold the tool to fit into different
applications, such as Blackboard®, was also appealing.
5. The copious number of question types, such as Maple-graded, standard,
multiple selection, short answer/essay, matching, true/false, and mathematical
formula.
6. The easy-to-run, straight-forward interface. Since the students who
need to write the test are at home, and have a limited period of time
to become familiar with the program, it was very important that the interface
be intuitive and simple.
7. No need for students to install software or a browser. Maple T.A.
is accessed through Web browsers for authoring content, taking tests,
and for administration of tasks.
8. Interest in Maple T.A. from other departments within the University.
If multiple departments are using Maple T.A., the professors can create
a better knowledge infrastructure.
Stony Brook now includes with their math admissions package details
on the math placement test, which is to be taken prior to orientation.
Students are referred to the web site where they perform as many practice
tests as they like, and then write the exam when they are ready. The
organization of the actual test remained the same; the students were
still timed, and had to perform the test before a certain date.
With Maple T.A. students were able to access a large test bank with
practice questions that they could do as many times as they wanted before
the test. They could then perform the test in a time that best suited
them, when they felt the most comfortable and prepared.
The faculty and staff were able to quickly and easily compute the results.
Scott said he had fewer problems with 3500 students in the first year
of Maple T.A. than he did with the 700 students he has during the year
using other software. Scott commented that he didn’t hear “I
don’t understand how to make this work” from any of his students.
Maple T.A. has the capability to better assess the student’s level,
as the interactive tool has the ability to move the student to an easier
or more advanced module based on their performance in the current module.
The results were clear
The stress and chaos of registration day was greatly reduced. The faculty
and staff knew when the students arrived at orientation which math class
they needed to enroll in. They were then able to concentrate on orientation
and the students, rather than facilitating a test. It was a lot less
work for the administration, and Scott said there was “a
net increase in satisfaction and happiness with the process.”
The students were better prepared. They had a chance to thoroughly practice,
and write the test when they were ready. The feedback revealed that the
students felt that the scores better represented their abilities.
Professors were able to concentrate on the students and the content
of the exam, not organizing the facilitation of the exam and timing of
the day. They were also better able to evaluate the test and the process,
to see where improvements could be made.
Stony Brook has many plans for Maple T.A. in the future. They are not
only planning to evolve their placement test questions, but they plan
to start using it in their pre-calculus course in conjunction with the
textbook content. They also intend to use Maple T.A. as a homework engine,
including homework assignments. Several other disciplines-physics, chemistry,
and economics-have also expressed interest in the tool, and the math
department is more than willing to help them get started. |
RSS Feeds
Types