A Case for Leveraging the Online Grade Book (Research-Based)

Research shows students value checking grades and accessing practice quizzes more than any other function in a course management system, yet few instructors use these online "killer apps" to facilitate self-regulated learning. This presentation will show how one instructor used online assessment to become UMBC's most active undergraduate CMS course for fall and spring last year and also saw a 20% gain in student scores on his department's required common final exam. Finally, we will share results showing underperforming students used the CMS 47% less than students earning a C or higher in 1,461 spring 2010 courses.

Learning Objectives
* Understand how and why students want feedback and practice to gauge and apply their mastery of course concepts.
* Observe a demo of how one instructor leverages online assessment to create a highly interactive learning environment to facilitate self-regulated learning.
* Learn about UMBC's academic analytics initiative, showing how students use the CMS and how (if faculty use the grade book) students can compare their CMS activity with an anonymous summary of course peers who earned the same, higher, or lower grade for any assignment.