Dr Amanda Cain, Ms Charmian Dawson and Professor Elizabeth Shephard

Structural and Molecular Biology

University College London

Getting it right: on-line formative assessment of numeracy skills

Aims of the project

• To assess the underlying numerical abilities of students within our second year course

• To improve these skills• To support development of ability and confidence

in solving numerical problems

Numeracy question from examination paper

Relationship between A’ level grades and numeracy score

Pre-Practical Quizzes

• Completion required prior to attendance in lab

• Short series of questions on moodle - theoretical

and numerical

• Pass mark of at least 60%

• First trialled in second year Molecular Biology

Support for numerical questions

• Numeracy helplines

• Practice quizzes

• Answer files

• Videos

Numeracy Helplines

• Designed by students

• Simple explanations

• Equations to memorise

• Worked examples

Numeracy helplines

Help line usage

Practice quizzes

Practice quizzes

• 193 students on course

• 302 separate attempts

• Over 200 views of the answer files

Videos

Video files

Advantages of on-line support resources

• Used at anytime and repeatedly• Regular practice of numerical concepts • No fear of embarrassment• Immediate results/feedback• Helps us to identify areas of weakness which

require additional support

Comparison of equivalent questions on molarity and percentage solutions

Analysis of numerical results

Student feedback

Summary

• Continued practice at numerical problems has had a positive effect

• The support materials are appropriate and well utilised

• Thanks to UCL for funding the creation of our support materials