George A. Chappell and Robert M. Miller State University of N e w York Buffalo 14214
A
II
Computer-Graded ~ualitah'veAnalysis
computer program for use on an IBM 7044 has been written for the grading and summarizing of student qualitative analysis reports. The main feature of the program is the elimination of key-punching for each student rcport. This is accomplished by issuing each student a deck of data processing cards (one for each ion possible during the course) with the ion numher and his desk number pre-punched. The student then turns in the card or cards corresponding to the ion or ions he wishes to report. The cards are returned to him during the next class for possible use on later experiments. The computer compares these cards with the correct answer and issues the proper grade for the experiment. The unlinowns mere assigned randomly by the computer from a list of those available. Several summary lists are printed a t the end of each experiment. A list of grades for each experiment to date, overall grades for the semester, rank, and previous rank are listed by section and by desk number across all sections. A list of gradcs in decreasing order along with the corresponding desk number, section number, and previous ranlc is also available. A fourth list gives thc average for each section on each experiment, as well as the semester average for each sectiou and the overall average for each experiment and the semester. Each unknown is then summarized by listing the number of students assigned the particular unknown, the ions present, ions reported, the number of times each ion was reported, the average grade for the unknown, and the
average grade of the students before they tried this unknown. An estimate of the difficulty of the unknown is made by dividing the average grade of the students assigned the unknown by the average grade for the unknown. This information is also punched out on a card to be combined with results obtained in previous semesters, thus allowing a more accurate determination of the difficulty of each unlmown. A faulty unknown can be detected from this summary. If a large percentage of students assigned a particular unknown make the same incorrect report, the unknown is checked for accuracy. A list of the ions each student reported is also prepared. A list of grades is stored on a magnetic tape and this list is updated after each experiment. The students seem to like this method better than the old hand grading method since the results are available sooner and there is much less chance for grading error. The list of section average and student ranlc promotes competitiou among the students. The student knows exactly where he stands after each experiment. If he does well he can see himself move up on the list or fall back with a poor report. Since the unlcnowns are assigned raudomly a t the beginning of the semester by the computer, there can be no complaints about unfair assignments. All programs are written in Fortran IV. We wish to thank the State University of New Yurk at Buffalo Computing Center, partially supported by NIH Grant FR-00126 and NSF Grant GP-5675, for free w e of computing time.
Volume 44, Number 2, February 1967
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