CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Two years ago, UPEI associate professor Jason Pearson and a former student started work on Stemble.
A web-based homework tool for university chemistry classes, it’s capable of replacing expensive textbooks while making learning more engaging and adaptable to students’ needs.
Now, those needs are for testing.
With the suspension of in-person classes and testing at the university due to coronavirus (COVID-19 strain) and exams looming, faculty in the chemistry department asked Pearson if he and his team could use Stemble to help.
Despite the effort required, the team quickly agreed, and UPEI chemistry exams should happen on schedule, said Pearson.
“We’re dealing with a timeline of about three weeks to get (testing implemented), so it does represent a substantial amount of work for us that we have to turn around really quickly, but the good news is we got together, we figured out how we could do it, we agreed to do it and we’re ahead of schedule so far.”
Professors and students in the department have used Stemble all year, but it’s designed to correct and instruct students, which isn’t helpful when trying to test them.
The Stemble team also had to make sure the system would let students know an answer and any revisions made were recorded, he said.
“Those sound like really simple user experiences, but they all have to be designed and built. And the code has to be written for all of that.”
The online exam will be open for 30-hours, with tech and test support available for 24 of those hours. This is to give students, like those who may not have reliable internet access, enough time to trouble shoot any problems they encounter.
But, because of the way tests will be delivered, Pearson isn’t concerned about any students cheating.
“It’s completely automated in the sense that there are very similar structures to questions, but all of the variables are randomized, so every single one of our students will have a unique exam of roughly equal difficulty level.”
For now, Stemble can only be used for chemistry, though Pearson hopes to eventually deploy it in other subjects.
In the meantime, being ahead of schedule has given Pearson and his team a chance to add testing as a permanent feature to Stemble and not just a band-aid solution to the current crisis.
Looking even further ahead, the Stemble team is in talks to incorporate augmented and virtual reality models to guide students through the abstract world of chemistry, said Pearson.
“Ultimately, what I want to do is be Ms. Frizzle driving the Magic School Bus. I want to take my whole class with me and say ‘alright, let’s jump into this beaker and watch this reaction happen as though we were the size of molecules ourselves’.”
