Instructional Design: How to write an elearning tutorial style quiz to advance scientific computing in your classroom
This workshop empowers STEM educators to create tutorial-style quizzes that simultaneously teach and assess scientific computing skills. While computational thinking is essential across disciplines, many instructors struggle to integrate these skills without overwhelming students or without having developed the skills themselves. Our workshop addresses this challenge through the innovative use of tutorial style instructional quizzes that break down computational concepts into manageable, scaffolded learning experiences. Participants will engage in a highly interactive experience including: Hands-on exploration of exemplar computational quizzes, Guided identification of "computational moments" in their existing courses, Collaborative development of learning objectives and assessment strategies, Building their own tutorial style quiz in an LMS, Peer testing and feedback sessions, Data-driven refinement of questions, Implementation planning for their specific teaching contexts. This workshop bridges pedagogical theory with practical application. Participants will leave with ready-to-use tutorial style quizzes, enhanced technical skills, and strategies to progressively build student computational confidence.
Stipend
We are pleased to offer limited stipends to support participation in this workshop. Participants who complete the full workshop will receive a $100 stipend. In addition, if you submit a final e-learning tutorial for review after the workshop, you will be eligible for an additional $100 stipend. These funds are intended to help offset the time and effort involved in attending the workshop and completing the tutorial deliverable. Awards are limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served or need-based selection process depending on availability.
Participation Requirements
To ensure a productive and hands-on experience, participants must:
- Bring a laptop computer to actively engage in tutorial development activities during the workshop.
- Complete a small amount of pre-work prior to the workshop, which will include a short preparatory task to ensure everyone begins with the same baseline knowledge.
- Come prepared with an idea of the computational content they wish to integrate into their classroom teaching. This will help shape your tutorial development and guide your work during interactive sessions.
These requirements are designed to maximize the value you get from the workshop and to support you in building a tutorial that is ready for implementation and review.
Intended Audience
Instructors who recognize the importance of computational skills but struggle with effective integration into their courses. We will help them train up these skills for classroom implementation.
Goals
By the end of this workshop, participants will:
- design and implement tutorial-style quizzes that teach while they assess, aligned with learning objectives using backward design principles.
- create authentic, discipline-relevant computational assessments that introduce scientific computing progressively through low-barrier tasks.
- write instructional feedback that scaffolds learning and normalizes productive struggle.
- leverage LMS analytics to evaluate and refine quiz effectiveness.