Student Voices: The Response To A Web Based Learning And Assessment Tool In Electrical Engineering

Increasing class sizes make it harder to provide students with effective skills practice, assessment and timely feedback. Computers and the Internet can help solve this problem, and to this end a Web-based tool, OASIS (Online Assessment System with Integrated Study), was developed. OASIS delivers individualized practice and assessment tasks, marks student responses, supplies prompt feedback, and logs student activity. Although the software was created to manage increasing workloads, it also appeared to be enhancing student learning. Consequently, in 2002, an action-research program was initiated that had two aims. The first aim was to develop and implement OASIS so as to best support student learning. The second aim was to confirm that OASIS did enhance student learning and to investigate the extent to which learning was enhanced. The research program involved the analysis of an extensive body of data collected by the software itself, course surveys, written responses from both present and past students, and recorded interviews with both instructors and students. The data show that students found OASIS easy to use and judged it helped them improve their skills and understanding. Instructors also noted a clear lift in student achievement. The research findings have led to ongoing, informed modifications in the software, its implementation, and teaching and assessment practices.