Contributed paper list


   (Monday 14th, 10:55-12:25)   In session C2A

Individualised project assessments for statistics courses – the best of both worlds?

Authors

Robert Grant, Ahmed Younis

Presenter

Robert Grant (United Kingdom)

Abstract

Examinations in statistics have been criticized for failing to assess analytical thinking and practical problem-solving skills. Project-based assessment is a widely used alternative, but detection of plagiarism is a concern as students should arrive at the same results. Definition of plagiarism is also difficult; sharing ideas on methods is a positive learning experience, while sharing results and computer output is not. Creating a different dataset for each student can resolve these problems but requires automation to be feasible. We describe the experiences gained from programming a general algorithm for this in R and SPSS and piloting in two years of postgraduate healthcare research methods students. There is potential to introduce unfairness if the requirements of analysis, such as post-hoc testing, are not identical in all datasets. Our algorithm creates multiple datasets that are constrained to differ enough to be identifiable, while also sharing exactly the same analytical requirements.