Conceptual Physics Evaluations
Help Page
Quick Start
This site allows you to design conceptual electricity and magnetism tests and to administer them online. The site contains over 1500 non-quantitative multiple-choice problems. You can create a Guest Account with only a valid email address and create up to three examinations. Guests have access to all 1500 problems for download to use in exams, homework, or lecture as clicker questions. Once you create the guest account, log in using the password that is emailed to you, then select the New Assignment tab to create your first assignment. If you would like to know more about the research that went into creating this site, visit our research site by selecting Research.Privacy and Cost
The services at this site are supported by a National Science Foundation grant and are now and will always be completely free. No information about you, your students, or test results will ever be shared under any circumstances.What is a conceptual problem?
What makes a problem conceptual is difficult to describe. By and large, the problems you’ll find here are non-quantitative, in the sense that a student would not need pencil and paper to solve them. Here’s a top 5 list of the types of conceptual problems you’re likely to find:
- Problems which determine how two variables scale with one another. For example, if you increase the resistance in a circuit while holding the potential difference constant, the current must go down.
- Problems which compare how fast two variables change.
- Problems requiring a definition or formula to be recalled.
- Problems which apply a property.
- Problems regarding ‘real life’ applications.
Why use conceptual problems?
Conceptual problems are needed because students continue to have misconceptions, even after solving a number of quantitative problems. We have found that around 75% of the problems in the average physics textbook are purely quantitative, in the sense that they require looking up a formula and plugging in variables. These types of problems may need to be supplemented with problems which confront students' preconceptions more directly.
Accounts
The username for your account is your email address. This cannot be changed. When you initially create an account, a password is mailed to this address. If you forget your password, you can request a new random password and it will be sent to your email address. Creating an account can be done at the website, with only an email address. Initally, all accounts are Guest Instructor accounts. These accounts may create up to three assignments, but may not use any of the online testing facilities. To upgrade to a Full Instructor account, you must provide proof that you are a working educator. This can be done at the Account Tab or by requesting an upgrade from me in person at an AAPT or APS event. To upgrade, provide an academic website with the email used for the account shown as belonging to a teacher. Many schools now maintain websites with instructor email listed.. If this is not possible, send a letter on school stationary to: Dr. John Stewart, University of Arkansas, Physics Building, Fayetteville, AR 72701. It ususally takes a few days to process upgrade requests.
Login
When you first visit the website, the screen below appears. Enter your email address and password to log in to the site.
Forgot Password
Select the "Click here if you have forgotten you password" bar, enter your email, click the button and a new password will be sent.
Create Account
All that is required to create a new account is an email address. Enter your email, name, school, and time zone (to control the times on the exams), and click the button. A random password will be mailed to you immediately.
Manage Account, Change Password, and Request an Upgrade
You can change your name and institution, select a new password, and request an upgraded account from the Account tab. To upgrade to a Full Instructor account, you must provide proof that you are a working educator. This can be done at the Account Tab or by requesting an upgrade from me in person at an AAPT or APS event. To upgrade, provide an academic website with the email used for the account shown as belonging to a teacher. Many schools now maintain websites with instructor email listed. If this is not possible, send a letter on school stationary to: Dr. John Stewart, University of Arkansas, Physics Building, Fayetteville, AR 72701. It ususally takes a few days to process upgrade requests.
Assignments
The core purpose of this website is to produce conceptual physics assignments in such a way that the assignment can be automatically regenerated each semester from a Design. The design is composed of a list of topics and the number of problems required from each topic. A design can be resampled to draw a new collection of problems from the selected topics. This site contain 1500 conceptual problems, so a wide variety of conceptual evaluations are possible.
Create an Assignment
To create a new assignment, go the the New Assignment tab. You will find the page shown below. The page asks for basic information about the new assignment, when it should be available and when it is due. It asks how you would like the assignment to be made available online, what class you would like the assignment to belong to, and how you want the assignment to be filled with problems. Each of these options will be explained below. Assignments are restricted to 30 problems.
Basic Assignment Information
Each assignment needs a unique name. This name will allow both the instructor and the student to tells assignments apart. Each assignment needs a beginning date and time when it will be made available to the students (if access is permitted) and an ending date and time when it will become unavailable to the students.
Online Testing Types
The site offers many different ways to provide access to your assignments and to allow students to take the assignments over the internet.
No Online Student Access - Select this option if you do not want anyone but you to have access to the assignment. You can still print and distribute the assignment.
- Print Access Only - Students can access the printable version of the assignment through a link that the instructor provides, but cannot take the test online.
- Online Testing - Email Instructor Scores - Students may
take the assignment online using an assignment code you provide through the
link
http://physinfo.uark.edu/exam.
The results will be emailed to you once they press submit. The results are emailed to the address associated with the account unless you specify an alternate email address on the Account page. No information about student names or scores is recorded at this site.
- Online Testing - Tabulate Scores - Students may take the
assignment online using an assignment code you provide through the link
http://physinfo.uark.edu/exam.
The results are recorded at this site and accessible to you through the Scores tab. The only personal information recorded about the student is the name he or she provides when taking the test. Since no roster is available, each time a student takes the test a new entry is recorded and there is no way to determine if a student has not taken the test.
- Online Testing - Use Roster - A class roster may be
created or uploaded at the Class tab. The roster contains student names and
email addresses (and initial passwords). A student account is created for
each student. Students may log in to their account at
http://physinfo.uark.edu/student.
Once the student logs in he or she receives a list of available assignments and may take any available assignments online. The student can take the test as many times as he or she wants before the due date and only the last will be recorded. Student accounts have automated password reset, so you are not bothered.
Assignment Classes
Rosters are associated with classes. You can create a new class at the Classes tab. Assignments do not have to be associated with a class unless you want to use the Roster/Student Account features. Select the class you want to associate with the assignment.
Adding Problems
The site offers a number of options of how to initially fill an assignment with problems. If you do not like the problems initially added, you can change the problems at the Design tab.
- Create Empty Assignment - No problems are added when the assignment is created. Use the Design tab to populate the assignment.
- Create an Assignment and Randomly Fill with Problems - Select a number of problems. When the assignment is created, that number of problems will be drawn randomly from all the problems in the problem base.
- Create an Assignment and Copy Problems from Another Assignment - Select an assignment; the new assignment will be created with the same problems as the previous assignment, but not with the same design.
- Create Assignment, Copy the Design of Another Assignment, and Resample - Select an assignment; a new assignment will be created with the same design as the selected assignment. Once created, the assignment will be resampled to fill the assignments with new problems based on the design.
View an Assignment
Once created, the main properties of the Assignment can be accessed and modified through the View Assignments tab. Currently, the online testing selection cannot be updated after creation. To make an assignment unavailable to students, simply adjust the beginning time. Students will have no access or evidence of the existance of the assignment until the current date and time is between the beginning date/time and the ending date/time. The assignment code is used to allow students to access the exam when you are not using the Use Roster option. You can access the printable version of the exam through the Print Exam link. All problems are stored as jpeg images, so any may be downloaded by right-clicking and saving. You can take the created exam using the Take Exam link which will take you to the online testing page the student will use. You can take the exam and it will be scored in the same way your students' exams will be scored. If you selected Email scoring, the result will be emailed to you. If you selected "Use Roster" or "Tabulate Scores" your score will be available at the Scores tab.
Email Scores or Tabulate Scores
There are two access points for students to take the evaluation online. If you select Online Testing - Email Instructor Scores or Online Testing - Tabulate Scores, your students will be able to take the evaluation online using the link below:
The students will use the Assignment Code accessible through the View Assignment tab to access the exam. If you wish, students can go directly to the assignment using the link printed at the bottom of the View Assignment page, for example http://physinfo.uark.edu?asncode=9bf53bt665. You can access the student help page for this type of online access at Student Help.
Use Roster
If you selected the Online Testing - Use Roster scoring option, you must associate the assignment with a class, and create a roster for the class. The process of creating a roster is described at Roster. When a student is added to the roster, a student account is created with the email address and initial password provided. The exam is not available without a successful login. The student login page is available at the link
http://physinfo.uark.edu/student
where the student will find the following login page. Help for the student testing site is available at Student Help.
Taking the Test
Once the student has either accessed the exam through the Assignment Code or logged in and accessed the exam through the student main page, the student will see the following page. The student selects the answers to each question. The status field is changed to Complete when all questions are answered. The student pushes Submit Assignment and the scores are delivered to his instructor in the manner selected when the assignment was created.
Browse
There are three ways to add problems to an assignment: (1) add them automatically as the exam is created, (2) add them as part of a design (covered next section), and (3) add the problems one by one by browsing the collection. To browse the collection, select the Browse tab and you will see the fairly complicated page that follows. The page is composed of two main parts, the left and the right, which will be covered individually in what follows.
The left pane allows the users to navigate through the problems in the problem base by selecting either chapters or sections. The number in parenthesis is the number of problems contained in the chapter or section, so for example Electric Charge contains 51 problems. When a chapter or section is selected, the problems within become available in the right pane as described below.
The right pane shows the current problem and allows navigation by the selection of the arrows keys, >, <, <<, and >>. If you find a problem you want to use as part of an assignment, select the assignment and push the Add Problem to Selected Assignment button. You can view the modified assignment through the Design tab, or through the Print or Take Assignment links on the View Assignment tab.
Design
The design page is the heart of the site. It allows the construction of an assignment based on a topical design. This design can then be resampled to produce a new assignment based on the same design. This allows the discontinuation of the dangerous practice of reusing conceptual evaluations and the production of evaluations more tailored to the coverage of a class. The Design tab is somewhat busy and is shown below. The left pane is the same topical collection shown on the Browse page above. The right pane allows the modification of the Assignment selected in the top control of the pane.
The Add Problem control allows the instructor to add a specified number of problems from one of the chapters or sections selected in the left pane. Assignments are restricted to contain no more than 30 problems. One you select Add Problems you will notice that the design at the bottom of the pane is updated, but the problem count in the assignment is unchanged. To add the new problems to the assignment, one must select the Resample button above the design.
The central part of the right pane contains a control that shows the problems in the current assignment. You can navigate through the assignment using the <, >, <<, and >> buttons. The Move Earlier and Move Later buttons move the problem either one problem earlier or one problem later in the assignment, allowing you to reorder the assignment. If you don't like a problem, push Exclude and it will be removed from the assignment and will not be included in any future sampling of the assignment. The number after the assignment title is the number of processes associated with the problem and is a measure of the problem complexity. One can read more about processes at the research site.
The design of the assignment is shown at the bottom of the right pane. A design has three possible elements: sample, include, and exclude.
- Sample - This element is produced when problems are added from a topic using the Add Problems button on the Design tab. Each time the Resample button is pushed the selected number of problems will be chosen at random from the topic and added to the assignment. The problem count can be updated by typing in a new number and pushing Update.
- Include - Problems can be explicitly included in the design by selecting Add Problem to Assignment from the Browse page. These problems will be included in every sampling.
- Exclude - Problems may be explicity excluded from the design using the Exclude button on the Design page. These problems will never be included in a resampling.
Any design element can be removed by pushing Remove. The assignment will be updated to reflect the new design when Resample is pushed.
Classes
Assignments may be created independently of classes. Assignments must be associated with a class to use a Roster to control online testing. Classes are created and managed using the Classes tab.Create Class
To create a class, use the Classes tab. Type in a new class name and select Create New Class. The class name can be changed using the Update button below. The class can be activated or deactivated using the button below. Student may not access materials from a deactivated class in any way. This is a quick way to remove access to a class that is complete.
View Class Assignments
Once created, assignments can be assigned to a class when they are created or through the Update feature on the View Assignments tab. Once assignments are associated with a class, they can be listed by selecting the Assignments button. The list will show if the assignment is available to students and how many times it has been taken. This number will also include any times the instructor has taken the test.
View Roster
The roster associated with the class can be displayed using the Roster button. Students may be added with the Add Student button. A valid email should be provided so the student can recover their password if it is forgotten. The initial password must be alphanumeric, but otherwise can be anything. I use the public student IDs assigned by the university for my students. Please do not use any private information like social security numbers and it is always best to check with administration about what information you can provide to an external site. We will never distribute the information, but any site could be the target of hackers.
Upload Roster
Adding students to a roster one by one is tedious. I have upwards of 250 students each semester, so I cut and paste my roster to a spreadsheet, then upload it. A template for the spreadsheet is available attemplate. The template is in "Comma Separated Value (CSV)" format and should be readable by Microsoft Excel or Open Office. The column titles may be reordered, but must be as they appear in the template. An image of the template file is shown below.
The image below shows the same file with a few students. When complete save the file in "CSV", Comma Separated Value, format. Select the Browse button to select the file and the Upload button to upload it.
Student Accounts
Once uploaded, accounts will be created for each student in the roster. Students may be Deactivated, denied access to exams, using the button. The student's name and initial password may be updated using the Update button. A student's password may be returned to the initial password using Reset.
Scores
The scores for the online exams for assignments where either Use Roster or Tabulate Scores was used as a scoring option are available at the Scores tab. If you have taken the exam and submitted it through the Take Exam link, your score will be reported along with the students. Your score will not be used to produce the summary. If you are using Tabulate scores, you will see an entry for each time a student took the exam. If you are using Use Roster, you will only see the last submitted assignment.
Analysis
The problem set was derived from a detailed analysis of the fundamental steps found in the solution to non-quantitaive physics problems found in popular textbooks (Research Site). Similar collections of these fundamental steps are called Processes. The Analysis tab shows a summary of student performance by Process. Since a process may be a small part of the solution, two kinds of analyses are presented. The average score column shows the average score on all problems containing at least one occurance of the process. The Average Score Isolated column shows only the average for problems where there was only one process involved in the problem.
Future
This site represents the first step in both providing the extensive materials created as part of the Arkansas PhysTEC project to instructors and allowing those instuctors to understand their classes using process modeling. In the fall semester, this site will be extended to provide full class management with multiple assignment types, dropping, and student grade summaries. This will be tested at Arkansas in the spring and released in July. The process content will be extended with models of processes available and greater control provided. Additional content will be made available to full instructors including the solutions to problems. A student self-testing tool is being planned. New sites will be released Jan 15 and July 15 each year. The old site will remain available at an altered address for six months.