When and When Not to Identify Correct Answers and Assign Point

Values to Responses

Gerald Bergtrom, Ph.D.Learning Technology CenterUniversity of Wisconsin – MilwaukeeOctober 2005

Edited by Tanya Joosten, Alan Aycock, Susan Gifford

In this tutorial you will:

•See strategies and methods for identifying correct answers to your questions.

•Set the correct answer to a Turning- Point question and select a correct response indicator.

•See strategies for giving points for correct answers or just for class participation

With responses like this, you may want to re-poll students, allowing them to discuss their first choices before answering again!

To do this, click the re-poll icon in the showbar. The graph disappears and polling re-opens.

For those times that you want to indicate the correct response to a question, highlight it, right click your mouse and select Set as Correct.

Then click Insert object, then Correct Answer Indicator, and choice of indicator.

…and see this:

In points-based reports generated by TurningPoint, correct answers are worth 100 points while wrong answers get zero…

The arbitrary value of 100 points for a correct answer seems… well, arbitrary! Logic would dictate instead that you should award 1 point for a correct answer and zero for incorrect answers.

Here’s how to assign points to correct responses…

To assign a point value of your choosing for the correct answer, highlight it, right click your mouse and select Set point value.

In the window that appears, type in a point value for the highlighted answer; then click OK.

You are returned to this screen:

When to Award Points

Awarding points for correct answers is useful for giving low-stakes assessments (quizzes) e.g., when giving a short quiz in class to assess a homework study assignment, knowledge of the previous day’s subject matter, or other homework assignment.

It is not useful if you want •students to get instant feedback on what they learned that day, •to assess your own teaching efforts! •get students to think (and talk!) about what you are asking them.

Studies of student response systems tell us that best pedagogic practice is to use clickers to encourage and reward class participation rather than correct responses.

It is possible to award class participation points in TurningPoint or in Excel reports

generated by TurningPoint.

In this example, an Excel report is generated by TurningPoint and adjusted so that students will get 10 points for trying to answer at least 80% of your questions.

Appropriately assigned and weighted, these points can be incorporated/imported directly into your Excel or D2L gradebook.

Here are the steps…

1.An ungraded Participant Results (Excel) report is generated for each session, showing student answers but not point values.

3. The session reports are combined to make a single spreadsheet and aligned with Excel’s V-lookup or using the import/export function in the D2L gradebook.

The spreadsheet might look like this:

responses to TP questions

Scroll to the right end of the spreadsheet…

Type column headings like the ones shown here…

To enter the number of responses of the first student in this cell, type the formula:

=count(F7.AI7)

To enter the % of possible responses in this cell, typethe formula:

=(AJ7/30)

To enter the points earned by this student in this cell, type the formula:

=IF(AK7>0.79,10,0)

You export the Points Assigned data and import them into the D2L gradebook.

Next, copy the formulas in the circled cells to the boxed cells; the data will re-calculate automatically.

Whether or not you choose to assign points for responses, you will

1.need to generate the Excel reports using the Turning Report function, and then2. massage the numbers and format the

spreadsheet so that the data is compatible with either your Excel or D2L gradebook.

Please contact the Learning Technology Center if you would like help with these procedures.

The end