How to Create Automatically Graded Spreadsheets for Statistics Courses

Instructors often use spreadsheet software (e.g., Microsoft Excel) in their statistics courses so that students can gain experience conducting computerized analyses. Unfortunately, students tend to make several predictable errors when programming spreadsheets. Without immediate feedback, programming...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Teaching of psychology Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 147 - 152
Main Author: LoSchiavo, Frank M.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.04.2016
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
Automation
Computer Mediated Communication
Computer System Design
Courseware
Educational Practices
Error correction & detection
Feedback
Feedback (Response)
Grading
Programming
Spreadsheets
Statistics
Technology Uses in Education
spreadsheets
teaching technology
teaching machine
Excel
statistics
ISSN:0098-6283, 1532-2802, 1532-8023
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Instructors often use spreadsheet software (e.g., Microsoft Excel) in their statistics courses so that students can gain experience conducting computerized analyses. Unfortunately, students tend to make several predictable errors when programming spreadsheets. Without immediate feedback, programming errors are likely to go undetected, and as a result, students will likely encounter difficulty mastering this new skill. In this article, I share techniques for creating spreadsheets that grade themselves either by providing immediate feedback or by delaying feedback until instructors have completed necessary evaluations of student performance. Students prefer automatically graded spreadsheets to more traditional methods for checking answers, and in the long run, automatically graded spreadsheets can save instructors’ valuable time. Furthermore, the techniques that I discuss can be adapted to create automatically graded assignments for other courses.
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ISSN:0098-6283
1532-2802
1532-8023
DOI:10.1177/0098628316636293