Research Article Open Access

Statistical Demonstration of Superiority of High-Frequency Short-Tests in Assessment When Teaching Statistics to Enhance Higher Student Pass Rates

Solly Matshonisa Seeletse1, Tshepo Matsose1, Gezani Richman Miyambu1 and Eunice Lebogang Sesale1
  • 1 Department of Statistics and Operations Research, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, PO Box 107, MEDUNSA, 0204, South Africa

Abstract

When facilitating learning, quick and small assessments can assist to detect areas that require further reinforcement and also identify students who need extra help in understanding the concepts taught. This paper demonstrates with Statistics, a difficult subject to pass at Higher Education Institution (HEI) level, that when these tests are administered at high frequencies and in large numbers, students are boosted to perform better, seemingly because there is no chance to pause learning. In addition to the higher performance shown, the students’ marks were more stable when checked using the Coefficient of Variation (CV) measure. This was an indication that in the case of many assessment exercises, the higher student performances obtained were also more reliable and had a better chance to be replicated when the exercise was repeated.

American Journal of Applied Sciences
Volume 14 No. 9, 2017, 923-929

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/ajassp.2017.923.929

Submitted On: 9 January 2017 Published On: 5 October 2017

How to Cite: Seeletse, S. M., Matsose, T., Miyambu, G. R. & Sesale, E. L. (2017). Statistical Demonstration of Superiority of High-Frequency Short-Tests in Assessment When Teaching Statistics to Enhance Higher Student Pass Rates. American Journal of Applied Sciences, 14(9), 923-929. https://doi.org/10.3844/ajassp.2017.923.929

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Keywords

  • Assessment
  • Descriptive Statistics
  • High-Frequency Short-Tests
  • Statistical Tests