Formative assessment with Numbas

Christian Lawson-Perfect
Newcastle University

Teaching and Learning Mathematics Online

The point of this talk is to show you some things that you can do with online formative assessment to help students learn. I'll assume you're already doing some online summative assessment, or have seen it happen. In lockdown, everyone moved online and there was a rush to replicate paper assessments. So most people, when they introduce digital assessment, do it for two reasons: to reduce marking load, and to add some randomisation to reduce cheating. The model is: show the student a question, take their answer, decide if the answer is correct, and tell you or the student. A formative assessment doesn't just have to produce a score as evidence of a student's attainment. I've always been keen to make Numbas a system that can be used to produce really valuable formative material. There's a lot of stuff, so I'm going to show you what you can do with it. In summative assessment, you have to assume the worst of the student, often leading to quite mechanical questions which can produce predictable results. In formative use, there is a level of trust between the system and the student, so you can do less robust things. We've had really good feedback from students about the formative material we provide. We don't do enough of it though: it takes time to make these things, and we barely have enough time to keep up with the must-haves! I think they're worth the investment: a good activity can really help a struggling student. I'm going to show stuff that you can do without too much coding. Often a bespoke interface would be better, but there's value in just using the tool you've got.

Formative assessment with Numbas

Feedback loops

Feedback loops

Feedback loops

Exploration

Exploration

Exploration

Adaption

Interactivity

Thanks!