Feedback and Assessment Tests (FAT)

The FAT system allows academics to provide Internet-based tests to students in their subject(s) throughout the semester. Two types of tests are currently available: assessment tests and feedback tests.

Assessment tests are official assessment tasks that contribute to a student's end-of-semester mark. Assessment-based tests are usually allocated a time limit and can only be performed once.

Feedback tests are used for several reasons, including:

• as revision exercises for students throughout the semester
• as practice tests in preparation for an online assessment test
• as practice tests in preparation for an end-of-semester exam
• as a follow-up to an online assessment test (using the same set of questions).

Students will receive more feedback on their performance if assessment tests are released as feedback tests immediately following each test period. Students have registered their appreciation of this feature in the end-of-semester Quality of Teaching (QOT) Surveys.

Question format

Both assessment and feedback tests can consist of any combination of these question types:

• Multiple choice with only one correct answer (the system supports any number of possible answers for a question)
• True/False
• Multiple answer (similar to multiple choice except that more than one answer must be displayed at the top of the screen).

Why use FAT?

There are several high-level benefits of using FAT, for both students and lecturers. The FAT system:

• Forces students to revise their lecture notes and textbook throughout the semester, reinforcing the test topic.
• Provides incentive for students to study during the whole semester because they can gauge how they're going throughout the semester.
• Increases knowledge retention because students are working consistently on the subject.
• Provides you with another method of feedback to students.
• Helps students understand how they are performing in the subject and helps them to develop more consistent study habits through regular tests.
• Allows you to quickly and easily identify any areas students are having difficulty with. This is particularly important if the concept being tested is crucial to the understanding of upcoming topics.

To discuss what systems would be most suitable for a particular subject, please contact Jennifer Shaw on 8344 4464 or email: shaj@unimelb.edu.au.

Registering for FAT

To register to use the FAT:

• It’s recommended that you first read the FAT Academic Guide (PDF, 163Kb) to understand how the system works.
• Next, complete the FAT Test Details Form (Word, 104Kb) and attached your question list. If you will be writing your questions from scratch, please feel free to use the Question Template to format your question text.
• Email the FAT Test Details Form and your list of questions to Jennifer Shaw (shaj@unimelb.edu.au). Jennifer will contact you to finalise your requirements once your questions have been uploaded into the FAT.

Copyright

If you have collected the questions from more than one external source or publication, then you must provide a copyright acknowledgement for each question. If the test comes from one external source, then you only need to provide one, overall copyright message. Copyright information can be provided in the FAT Test Details Form and Question Template documents.

Results

The TLU will email your students’ test results to you in an Excel spreadsheet at the end of each test period.

The Excel spreadsheet contains the following information:

• Student ID
• First name
• Last name
• Score (number of questions answered correctly)
• Total (number of questions displayed).