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Online quizzes are a valid and acceptable formative assessment tool
Author(s) -
Kibble Jonathan
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a221
Subject(s) - formative assessment , psychology , mathematics education , medical education , medicine
Adoption of course management software at our school has resulted in use of online quizzes for formative assessment, in favor of supervised quizzes. Current goals were to assess if online quiz score predicts performance on formal examinations and if quizzes are acceptable to students. Performance on 2 online quizzes offered before our most recent midterm examination was analyzed. Each quiz had 25 questions reflecting the style of the midterm. Each quiz was open for 1 wk. The maximum score from 2 possible attempts was recorded. Students reviewed questions they got wrong after their first attempt. Students could earn up to 1% of their final course grade for each quiz, based on their best score from 2 attempts. 96% of students completed the quizzes. 147 scores reflected a single attempt; 500 recorded scores were the better of 2 attempts. There was significant correlation between first quiz attempt and midterm scores (R=0.26, n=500, P<0.01, ANOVA) for students using 2 attempts, indicating predictive validity of quizzes. Students taking quizzes only once scored 96.0±1.0% but did not perform better on the midterm than students using 2 attempts (79% versus 81%), raising concern about unethical use of quizzes in a minority of cases. Students agreed that quizzes were motivating and gave them useful feedback. Students emphasized the importance of giving credit for participation and the need to provide explanations for quiz answers.