CLeaR Fellows 2014 – Dr Andrew Luxton-Reilly

Flipping difficult

Andrew’s background is in Philosophy and Computer Science. In 1995, he joined the Computer Science Department where he focused on first-year curriculum design and delivery. Since 2005, his Computer Science education research has focused on software tools that facilitate collaborative learning, investigating the impact of assessment tools on learning, and the variation in ways that novices learn programming. He has participated in numerous International Working Groups investigating areas of interest to the Computer Science Education community. In 2002 he received a Teaching Excellence Award.

Computer Scientists develop tools to address issues and the biggest barriers to staff trying new things are time and skill requirements. The fellowship year will provide the opportunity to develop his work on peer assessment, in particular: Lowering the entry barrier for both students and teachers, making the set-up of peer assessment systems technically simple; and encouraging staff to move on to more sophisticated tools. Peer assessment could involve students comparing two pieces of their peers’ work (e.g. a paragraph or small piece of code). Students could identify which is better and why (the strengths and weaknesses of the work). The teacher could access work submitted to the Learning Management System and import it directly into the program so students would just have to log in, compare the two pieces of work and logout.

Andrew will also consider how this process could be used in other subjects.