Collecting Data in Your Classroom

Presentation from pre-term meeting that overviewed implementation and testing.
12-06-2023 meeting recording (MP4 Video 436.3MB Jan3 24)

Logging on to WaMAP

You should have an account in WaMAP. Go to https://www.wamap.org/ to log in. Your username typically is the same as your email address before the '@' sign, so if your email were terry.williams@university.edu, your username would typically be 'terry.williams'. If you have any trouble at all, please email ebaer@highline.edu . Please do NOT create another account.

Setting up your class in WaMAP

You should already have a class set up in WaMAP from the workshop. If you need another, follow the creating a course instructions (https://www.imathas.com/imathas/help.html#creatingcourses). This includes information on all your options when setting up your course, including start and end dates. You can also let Eric know and he will do it for you. Please name your course with your institution, course name, term, and your name in parentheses. For example, "Highline natural disasters F23 (Baer)".

Rosters

The easiest way to get your course roster into WaMAP is to put a .csv file into this Google Drive folder and then send Eric an email so he can import it. Please make sure your roster includes students' email, name (first and last), and, if possible the username that they would like. If possible, it works well to make this the same as their campus username so they won't have to remember multiple usernames.

You can also import your own roster. Instructions are here: https://www.wamap.org/help.php?section=coursemanagement#importstudentscm

If you need to add students to your roster after the fact, you can do that by selecting Student Roster in the left navigation menu and then selecting "Create and Enroll new student."

Creating the quizzes and pre-tests

Creating the pre-test

1. Make the assessment

To create the pre-test, go to your WaMAP course and under the drop-down menu "Add an item" select "add assessment." Name it "pretest". In the instructions, write something to your students about this pre-test. We suggest something along the lines of "This is a diagnostic test only. If you struggle with this assessment, please do not be discouraged. Be aware that these are math skills we intend to teach you --  not ones you necessarily already have! The purpose of The Math You Need is to make you more successful in your Earth Science class." You may also want to indicate how it will be graded.

Select the dates by which it will be available to students. We recommend the following settings:

• Display: one question at a time. 
• Tries on each question: 1 or 2 (since this is a pretest, we don't want students spending a lot of time trying.)
• Show answers: Never

For all the other settings, you can do as you please.

Click "Create Assessment" button at the bottom.

Add instructions to clarify the purpose of the assessment to students:

Show instructions text

Hide

This survey asks about students' experiences and current estimated skill with math in majors-level Earth science courses. Your feedback will help inform strategies and tools to support students in majors-level Earth science courses and will help instructors adjust Earth science courses to meet student needs.

Please respond to the following brief questions about your attitudes toward math along with some preliminary math problems in the context of Earth science that have been selected by your instructor. The first part of the survey will take approximately 5 minutes, and your instructor will provide an estimate or time limit for the math problems.

Anonymized survey data will be analyzed to better understand patterns of math experience across many institutions. For this purpose, all reports of survey responses will be based on group averages. Please respond thoroughly and honestly to help us better understand how earth science and mathematics courses can be improved. This study is completely voluntary and you have the right to withdraw at any time.

This first set of questions concerns your feelings about your math abilities and content in your courses.

2. Add the student attitudinal questions

Under the "Potential Questions" Click "select assessments". Then select "Student questions - math self-efficacy" and click "Use assessments." Select all the questions and click "add" at the bottom.

3. Add questions on the quantitative topics you want to use.

For the next part of the pretest you will add a few questions that you will want students to be able to do after the term is done. So if you are using the Scientific Notation, Histograms, and Introductory Statistics modules, you will assign a few questions on each of the topics. Under the "Potential Questions" Click select "In libraries." About halfway down, find "The Math You Need" and click the plus sign. Then you will find the library for each quantitative skill. If you were doing the Introductory Stats module, you would use the Introductory Stats library by selecting the check box next to the library and hitting the button "Use Libraries". While you are welcome to use other questions from other libraries, these questions have been quality controlled and are generally in a geoscience context.

From the questions that are listed, you can select a few questions for the pre-test.

Repeat the above for all modules you will be using.

4. Add demographic questions

Under the "Potential Questions" Click "Select assessments". Then select "Student questions - Demographics" and click "Use assessments." Select all the questions and click "add" at the bottom.

Note: it is very important that you add the demographic questions after the quantitative questions. Multiple studies have shown that asking the quantitative questions first will change the results.

Select "Done." Woohoo! You have made your pre-test!  That is the hardest part!

Creating the post-module quizzes

Post-module quizzes are what students will take after they have gone through the Math You Need Majors module. You will create an assessment for each of the modules you will be using.

1. Make the assessment

To create the post-module quiz, go to your WaMAP course and under the drop-down menu "Add an item" select "add assessment."  Name it. In the instructions, write something to your students about this post-module test.  We suggest something along the lines of "This assessment is on <>. You should complete it only after reading through the module on <>  at http://serc.carleton.edu/mathyouneed/geomajors. Please work independently, but feel free to look back at the Math You Need web pages if necessary. You will be graded on this assessment." You should also indicate how it will be graded.

Select the dates by which it will be available to students.  We recommend the following settings:

• Display: one question at a time. 
• Tries on each question: 3+ or unlimited.  (Most instructors want this to be a mastery assessment, so they allow many tries on each question.  Since each time a new variant is produced by WaMAP, you can let them do it many times.  Some instructors have found limiting the number of tries somewhat is a good idea to prevent students from spending too many hours on it.
• Show answers: Never

For all the other settings, you can do as you please. Click "Create Assessment" button at the bottom.

2. Add the questions

After you have created the assessment, you will be taken to the Add/Remove Questions. Under the "Potential Questions" click select "In libraries." About halfway down you will find "The Math You Need"; click the plus sign.  Then you will find the library for each quant skill.  So if you were doing the stats module, you would use the Introductory Stats library by selecting the check box next to the library and hitting the button "Use Libraries".  While you are welcome to use other questions from other libraries, these questions have been quality controlled and are generally in a geoscience context.

Select questions that you think are good to help students master this quantitative topic.  As always, practice good test generation, such as having easier problems first. You can see how long it typically takes a student to answer.  Select Add at the bottom of the screen

3. Add the three attitudinal questions. 

Please add the 3 module student attitude questions "I found this module helpful" "I found this module difficult" and "suggestions."  You can find these in the library The Math You Need -> TMYN Majors - Student Attitude Questions ->  Post-module questions. Select the 3 and click the add button at the bottom of the screen.

Select done or preview to check that everything is what you expect.

Creating the post-test

1. Copy the pre-test.

Go to the pre-test and click on the gear icon.  Select "copy" a duplicate assessment will be created.

2. Alter this copy.  

• In Settings, 
  • Change the the name to "Posttest." Change the summary and instructions. We suggest something along the lines of "This final assessment is developed to measure how well the previous quizzes have improved your comfort level with, and mastery of math we have used this term.  We hope that this and previous assessments have strengthened your quantitative skills, as well as improved your math skills for you to apply to later courses and careers." Include when it is due and how it will be graded.
  • Correct the dates.
  • All the other settings should be kept the same.
• In Questions, 
  • Remove any questions for modules you did not use. 
  • Remove the demographic questions. 
  • Remove the following questions: 
    • Approximately what college year are you in? (Q1)
    • What is your declared or intended major in college? (Q2)
    •  When did you take your most recent math course? (Q4)
    • How many college-level math courses have you taken, either in high school or college  (Q5)