Abstract:
This project aims to enhance freshmen’s learning engagement and outcomes in General Education (GE) Foundation course by incorporating formative e-assessment (PEA) tasks into tutorial process. A teacher guide on PEA task design and implementation, PEA tasks and cases of using PEA tasks will be developed and refined during the project. GE foundation course is an important course aiming at cultivating undergraduates’ generic skills for their future life and work. The efficiency of the course depends on how much the students engage in the course and how well they learn. PEA can enhance undergraduates’ learning engagement and outcomes due to the nature of formative assessment and affordance of technology. A quasi-experiment design will be utilized to collect data from at least 12 tutorial groups of GE foundation course. The data will be used to verify the effects of PEA on learning and provide insights for formulate an PEA framework as a reference for assessment innovation in general education at the tertiary level.
Code:
T0201
Principal Project Supervisors:
Keywords provided by authors:
Start Date:
01 Jun 2018
End Date:
31 May 2019
Status:
Completed
Result:
226 first-year college students in 10 experimental groups (2 groups in the pilot study) and 3 control group (1 group in the pilot study) taught by 5 teachers participated in this project. Methods for evaluation included interviews with participating teachers and students, survey, document analysis of students' e-journals and log data.
The survey shows that students in experimental group engaged more in their tutorials, demonstrated higher reflective and critical thinking level than control group. The differences between experimental and control group in terms of emotional engagement and critical thinking disposition were statistically significant. Analysis of students' first and third e-jouurals reveal that there was no significant difference in improvement of reflective thinking but significant difference in the improvement of critical thinking.
Analysis of teacher and student interviews show that teachers and students were positive about the use of FEA tasks in GE foundation tutorials and acknowledged different FEA tasks enhanced their engagement and improve their critical thinking level. Teachers and students also encountered challenges in implementing FEA tasks including examination-oriented learning attitudes, low course learning motivation, time constraints, interpersonal perception and etc.
Impact:
Through this project, three types of FEA tasks were designed and implemented in 10 groups taught by 5 tutors. The experiences (including the advantages, challenges, solutions to the challenges, and suggestions for future implementation) of using FEA in the GE foundation course were synthesized. Three cases of implementing FEA tasks can be used as curriculum resources for tutorials. A website will be dedicated to disseminate these cases so that they can be accessed within and beyond the University. These crystallized experiences will constitute a guiding framework for designing and implementing FEA in the GE foundation course. The university lecturers within and beyond EdUHK will benefit from the proposed website, teacher guide book, cases and research papers concerning the project.
Through FEA tasks, the students in experimental groups also developed their assessment expertise and literacy which can enable them to reflect their learning thoroughly. Their higher-order thinking skills were cultivated and learning engagement were enhanced.
Deliverables:
Books/ Book Chapters/ Journal Articles/ Conference Papers
Zhan, Y. (in press). Enhancing learning engagement through formative e-assessment in General Education foundation course tutorials. In C. P. Lim & C. R. Graham (Eds.), Blended learning for quality access in Asian universities. Hong Kong: Springer Education & Language.
Zhan, Y. (2020). What matters in design? Cultivating undergraduates' critical thinking through online peer assessment in a Confucian heritage context. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/02602938.2020.1804826
Seminars/Presentations/Sharing Sessions
Zhan, Y. & Chan, N. C. (2019, June). Enhancing learning engagement through formative e-assessment in General Education foundation course tutorials. Paper presented at C&I Departmental conference 2019, The Education University of Hong Kong.
Teaching and Learning Resources/ Materials (including online resources)
Zhan, Y. (2020). Teacher guide book: Enhancing learning engagement and outcomes through formative e-assessment tasks in the General Education foundation course.
Project website: Enhancing learning engagement and outcomes through formative e-assessment tasks in the General Education foundation course (https://shirlyyj.wixsite.com/eduhktdg)
Financial Year:
2017-18
Type:
TDG