The use of CAA for formative and summative assessment – student views and outcomes

A study was carried out to examine the effects of introducing formative CAA on the summative assessment results. Twenty six students studying Farm Animal Production were given the option of using self-assessment tutorials in QuestionMark Perception. Each tutorial consisted of 10 randomly selected questions on either beef production or sheep production. Feedback was provided to the student after the completion of the tutorials. Uptake was variable, with 38% (n=10) of the students choosing not to use the self-assessment tutorials. Significant positive correlations were found between the use of beef production tutorials and marks in the beef production section of the summative assessment (rs = 0.69, P < 0.01) and also between the use of the sheep production tutorials and marks in the sheep production section (rs = 0.59, P < 0.01). The positive correlations between the marks for the beef and poultry sections of the exam (r = 0.52, P < 0.01) and the sheep and poultry sections (r = 0.36, P < 0.1) suggest that it may have been either the more academically able or the more motivated students who were choosing to use the tutorials. A questionnaire was completed by 24 of the students. For students who used the self-assessment tutorials, the responses given in the questionnaire were mostly positive, and in favour of the use of the self-assessment tests. One concern was the nature of the feedback given in the tutorials, and this is undergoing further investigation during the current semester.