The University of Delaware’s Center for Teaching and Assessment of Learning awarded research study grants to five faculty members of various colleges.

The 2017 faculty grant recipients are

• Kyle McCarthy, assistant professor of wildlife ecology, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources;

• R. Valery Roy, associate professor of mechanical engineering, College of Engineering;

• Dustyn Roberts, assistant professor of instruction in the Department of Mechanical Engineering,  College of Engineering;

• Jennifer Naccarelli, associate chair for the Department of Women and Gender Studies, College of Arts and Sciences; and

• Alexandre Abdoulaev, adjunct assistant professor of music literature, College of Arts and Sciences.

The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of automated computer scored quizzing on student performance. Recipients of the grant were awarded $5,000 to work closely with CTAL and Academic Technology services, attend faculty professional development sessions to learn how to design good quiz questions and incorporate frequent automated quizzes into the Canvas learning management system (LMS).  

Faculty members selected for this grant taught a 100- or 200-level course in fall 2016 with an enrollment greater than 60 students. Their large courses had very few assessments when previously taught and will now incorporate at least four automated quizzes using Canvas Learning Management tool.

CTAL is interested in determining how increasing the number of assessments using quizzes with automated grading may impact students’ final grades. Studies in the fields of psychology, sociology, business and accounting education have examined the role of daily quizzes, “pop” quizzes, announced quizzes and other frequent quizzing structures on student learning. The grantees and CTAL will share their results with the UD community in spring 2018 after they analyze the results of the data.

Faculty who are interested in learning how to use the Canvas LMS can always receive assistance in the Faculty Commons located in room 116 Pearson Hall. In addition, there will be specific Summer Faculty Institute sessions on using Canvas and designing good test questions.