Faculty of Law, Arts & Social Sciences: Department of Psychology

The Department of Psychology at SU re-engineered the first year Basic Psychology class to improve reflective and sustainable learning with 50% of the lectures being replaced by online tasks which involve peer discussions around progressively more complex formative assessments. This peer scaffolded design where monitored peer feedback supports large student numbers resulted in a 6% rise in average exam marks and reduction in the course failure rate from 12.1% to 2.8% without any workload increases. The results of the completed redesign can be found by following the links listed below:

At a Glance

Department:

Department of Psychology

Class/Course:

Basic Psychology

Students:

560

Technology:

Online collaborative group tasks supported by VLE message-board

Assessment Activities:

Regular collaborative tasks support peer feedback processes and student engagement.

Efficiencies:

50% of lectures replaced with online tasks. Staff time re-directed to support online tasks.

Learning Gains:

Significant overall improvement in average exam pass mark (51.1% in 2005/06 diet rising to 57.4% in 2006/07).

Exam failure rate reduced from 13% to 5%. Course failure rate reduced from 12.1% to 2.8%.

 

 
Preliminary Findings
Principles in Practice
Summary Report
Staff Involved
  • Dr Deirdre Kelly [deirdre.kelly 'at' strath.ac.uk]
  • Prof Jim Baxter [j.baxter 'at' strath.ac.uk]
  • Dr Andy Tolmie [a.k.tolmie 'at' strath.ac.uk]
  • Dr Tony Anderson [tony.anderson 'at' strath.ac.uk]
Publications

Baxter, J (2007). A Case Study of Online Collaborative Work in a Large First Year Psychology Class. From the REAP International Online Conference on Assessment Design for Learner Responsibility, 29th-31st May, 2007.

Department of Psychology presentation at first REAP 'Brown Bag' Event March 2006

Deidre Kelly, local REAP project co-ordinator in the Department of Psychology at the University of Strathclyde presented an overview of the first stage of assessment re-engineering in the department and some early outcomes at the first REAP 'Brown Bag' lunchtime event in March 2006. For a link to Deidre's Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, please click here.

Department of Psychology participate in SU Learning Enhancement Network REAP Event 25th April 2006

Presentation by Jim Baxter, SU Dept of Psychology