Connecting mathematics and statistics instructors

Essay Questions on Exams

Has anyone tried making Essay Questions for Exams? I added a couple to an Exam last term and really enjoyed it (see screen shot).

Student's get to use the Math Pallet to format their equations and when grading it you can pull up an algorithmically generated sample answer to check their values (students can see this too when they review their exam).

You have to build the answer when you create the problem, and once you fix all the bugs it works very nicely.

The grading actually goes very quickly--it only takes one click to move to the next student. Plus you have a comment box where you can leave feedback for each student individually.

I'd love to see that problem type made available for Homework and Quizzes too, right now it's only for Exams.

Has anyone else tried it? If so, what were your impressions?

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Permalink Reply by Diane Bauman on September 28, 2010 at 4:15pm

I didn't even know that was available. Very cool!

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Permalink Reply by Irene Doo on September 28, 2010 at 7:52pm

I have used essay questions but for verbal type questions (study skills, time management, etc.). I have not used essay questions for math content. I love the grading interface as it's easy to use and quick.

BTW, you can use essay questions for quizzes and tests, but not homework.

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Permalink Reply by Diane Bauman on March 10, 2011 at 1:23pm

Ok, I'm a little confused....did you build the essay question or did it come pre-packaged in MyMathLab?

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Permalink Reply by Nolan Mitchell on March 10, 2011 at 1:57pm

Those are questions I had to write myself. I don't know of any pre-packaged essay questions.

If you're interested just make a copy of Course ID: MITCHELL35066

I've created a Quiz in that course that has all of my essay questions. Once you copy the course the questions will be added to your Custom Question Manager which can be accessed through the HW & Test Manager.

I should mention that these aren't perfect. In particular, some of the names are less than desirable (Math 111 Q2.2 isn't very descriptive) though I did try to assign an objective to most of them. But you can edit them however you like and change which textbook(s) they are associated with.

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Permalink Reply by Valerie Harris on March 10, 2011 at 2:39pm

Hi Nolan,

I did copy your course, because you seem to have so many great ideas and I wanted to "steal" some of them from you. (Copying is the greatest form of flattery.) Thank you for making it available. There is always so much new to learn! Val