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A better test Most of the problems listed in the previous section can be addressed by the development of an integrated assessment tool that can interface to a competency mapping module. A possible architecture for such a tool is shown here. The requirement for small, orthogonal questions necessitates the development of an online assessment tool: the collection of per-question data from traditional written exams is too labour-intensive to be practical. It does not, however, necessitate machine marking: what can be marked by hand using paper exams can still be human-marked in a computerized assessment system. Provision can still be made for the marker to annotate their mark if necessary. It is likely that online marking would be more efficient than paper-based marking, even if all the marking is still done by humans: there are no papers to count, sort or lose, many markers can work on the same student's exam simultaneously, and markers' work can be checked immediately if the need arises. Students' work can still be stored; in fact, if archived to compact disc, it will take up less space and be less subject to deterioration. Because the questions need to be small, there must be a lot of them. The need to generate a large question bank is the primary reason that such an online assessment system could not be written as part of this project. Generating questions will be the hardest and most time-consuming part of implementing the online assessment. The test needs to be carried out with as little overhead as possible for the students. This means that it should replace an existing form of assessment, such as the mid-semester test, rather than adding to the students' assessment burden. Alternatively, it could be administered in the final prac class for the semester, as very timely formative assessment in advance of the final exam. The results of the online test needs to be stored in a database, which can be integrated with the prac marks database. This database needs to have data entry capability, so that as other marks are made available they can also be entered into the database. The multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis tools can be implemented as separate modules. This will make it easier to test different algorithms.

Concept mapping for introductory programming Thesis main page Introduction and background     Background: education     Assessment     Background: concept maps   Aims     Competency mapping     Benefits   Method and results     Data sets     Method     Results     Random data   Analysis and conclusions     Factor analysis     Cluster analysis     Methodological problems     A better test     Conclusion   Appendix I: Datasets Appendix II: Activities Appendix III: MDS coordinates Appendix IV: Data generation scripts   Bibliography

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