OASYS is the On-line Assessment SYStem, developed by Ashley Ward and Abhir Bhalerao for use on the Design of Information Structures module in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick.
In their laboratory sessions, students are first set a work sheet. This is followed by an on-line test using OASYS. A set of one students responses is termed a script, and is stored in a database. When the test is completed, the system assists each student to peer assess three other students scripts. As soon as a script has been marked, it can be viewed by its originator.
The system is no longer in use in the form described here, but these documents might be of interest. Newest first...
Some recent interest has prompted Ashley to release a cleaned-up version of OASYS under the GPL open source license at SourceForge. A mailing list for related discussion, a downloadable source package and CVS access to the source are available through the project page there, at http://sourceforge.net/projects/oasysgpl/. The software is currently in a pre-alpha state: people with some previous experience in mysql and PHP are highly welcomed to help in the attempt to improve the code. If you do not have this experience, it might be better to wait a while.
Ashley Ward and Abhir Bhalerao gave a one hour workshop for participants on the Learning and Teaching Support Network: Information and Computer Sciences (LTSN-ICS) two day workshop, hosted at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick on 5-6 April 2001.
Abhir Bhalerao and Ashley Ward "Towards Electronically Assisted Peer Assessment: A Case Study", ALT-J volume 9 no 1 (2001), pp. 26-37. Errata for this paper. The Association of Learning Technology Journal is an international peer-reviewed journal devoted to research and good practice in the use of learning technologies within higher education.
Abstract: One of the primary goals of formative assessment is to give informative feedback to the learner on their progress and attainment of the learning-objectives. However, when the student/tutor ratios are large, effective and timely feedback is hard to achieve. Many testing systems have been developed that use multiple choice questions (MCQ), which are trivial to mark automatically. MCQ tests are simple to develop and administer through web based technologies (browsers, Internet, and web servers). One of the principal drawbacks of current systems are that the testing format is limited to MCQ and general questions requiring free responses are not included because marking cannot be easily automated. Consequently, many learning tasks, such as the correctness and style of solutions to programming problems, cannot be assessed automatically. Our approach is a hybrid system combining MCQ testing with free response questions. Our system, OASYS, marks MCQs automatically and then controls the anonymous distribution of completed scripts amongst learners for peer assessment of free response answers. We briefly describe the design and implementation of OASYS, which is built on freely available technologies. We present and discuss findings from a case study of using OASYS for 240 students taking a programming class involving 4 assessed programming laboratories in groups of approximately 40 students.
Ashley Ward and Abhir Bhalerao "Experimenting with web-enabled peer assessment". In Forum (a termly publication for all academic and research staff at Warwick), issue 17 (Spring 2001), p.20.
One of Ashley's assignments for the Warwick Teaching Certificate, October 2000.
Summary: The reasoning behind a questionnaire designed for the evaluation of a Computer Science module [which used OASYS] is given. Some simple analysis of results from questionnaire responses is presented, along with some deeper analysis involving correlation with other available data. The results are used as a basis for suggested recommendations for change.
A talk (P027) given by Ashley at the ALT-C 2000 "integrating learning technology" conference at UMIST on Monday 11th September 2000.
This was an appendix in the essay below written for the Warwick Teaching Certificate, February 2000.
One of Ashley's assignments for the Warwick Teaching Certificate, February 2000.
Abstract: This paper presents a case study involving a computer programming and information structures course. Lab sessions, consisting of a worksheet followed by a test, are introduced to replace badly attended seminars. The testing produces a mass of paper scripts, which are hard to mark effectively, and so a move is made to an on-line assessment system. The system contains the usual multiple choice questions but its novel and perhaps innovative feature is that it assists anonymous peer assessment. This paper attempts to link the decisions made back to the aims and objectives of the course and evaluate the ideas in the light of some educational theory.