The role of attitudinal factors in mathematical on-line assessments: a study of undergraduate STEM students

TL;DR

This study investigates how attitudinal factors influence undergraduate STEM students' engagement with mathematical online assessments, highlighting the importance of feedback, enjoyment, and confidence in technology use.

Contribution

It identifies key attitudinal factors affecting students' use of online assessments and emphasizes the role of feedback and support in enhancing engagement.

Findings

Students prefer online feedback over traditional feedback.

Attitude and enjoyment significantly influence assessment usage.

Confidence in technology impacts effective use of online assessments.

Abstract

This study explores student attitudes to the use of substantive on-line assessments that require mathematical answers. Our goal is to learn what are the important aspects in a design of more effective e-assessments that support learning of mathematical subjects in a higher education setting. To that end we analyse the effects of a variety of attitudinal factors towards such assessments amongst a cross-section of 1st year students in an English University. These students were all previously exposed to on-line assessments containing substantial mathematical work, including testing of and feedback on the algebraic structure of their answers. They were provided with detailed online feedback, and we therefore specifically examine the effect of formative feedback on the usage of educational technology. Our results suggest that students find on-line feedback more enjoyable and useful than traditional feedback. 'Attitude' and 'Enjoyment' are the two most important factors influencing their usage intention. Our results also show that, even for this digital generation, confidence in using computers and the availability of support for using information technology are important factors in making effective use of on-line assessments.