Community resources
PeerWise (part 1)
You've answered plenty of questions already in this course: now we’re going to get you to write some...
PeerWise supports students' learning through the creation, sharing, evaluation and discussion of course questions. It is an on-line system: after this workshop, you will be able to log in and use PeerWise. In this workshop session we are going to prepare for this activity so that you can obtain maximum benefit from it, by carrying out a number of tasks.
First, let's get a flavour of what PeerWise is and what you can do with it:
What are the thinking skills and writing skills we will need in order to use PeerWise effectively? To help with this, we will do a couple of fun quizzes.
You will need:
- Beliefs About Thinking Quiz (yellow sheets)
- Designing Good Multiple Choice Questions (blue sheets)
You don’t have to hand in anything here: you just need to complete the quizzes, and have a think about them and discuss them with the people in your group (and others if you like). When we come back after the break we’re going to work together in groups on applying these ideas to writing good questions for PeerWise.
PeerWise (part 2)
The target region
This exercise is about identifying the topics which will help you master the physics introduced in this course. The target region is those topics that are just a little beyond where you already feel comfortable. Working in your groups, design a multiple choice question. Each of you should record the question on your blank template. An example is provided of a question about the tension in cables, to help you get started:
This week's assignment will not be from the course questions as usual, but instead will use PeerWise. You will notice that you build up a score by contributing questions, answering, rating and commenting on other people's questions. You should aim for a high score: your assignment mark will depend on your engagement with the task and the quality of your questions and comments. You should participate as much as you like, but as a minimum you should:
- Write at least 1 question
- Answer at least 5 other questions
- Rate and comment on at least 3 questions
Your PeerWise score will be an indicator of how well you are doing on this task.
One member of your group should volunteer to enter the question your group designed during this workshop exercise. Note that this will not count as the minimum question towards your assignment!
Tips:
- After entering questions into PeerWise, don't fiddle with them unnecessarily! If there's a serious problem with your question then by all means fix it, but this will wipe out all feedback that has built up for it. Don't do this just to add a comma in!
- This is about a community of learning - use your common sense, and be respectful of each other!
Final thoughts:
- Allow yourself and others to be wrong. In this exercise, flawed questions and answers will be rich sources of learning.
- It is not about showing off to see who can write impossibly hard questions: aim at mastery through engagement with the task rather than the display of existing ability.
Supporting files for PeerWise
