Online formative MCQs to supplement traditional teaching: a very significant positive impact on student performance in the short and long run

The paper builds on the research underpinning One Lecturer’s Experience of Blending E-learning with Traditional Teaching (Catley, 2005). It analyses the earlier findings in more depth and examines the longer term impact of online quizzes on student performance. Engagement with formative online MCQs is explored generally and the links between MCQ engagement and a range of student characteristics: seminar attendance, “A” level performance, age, nationality, gender and prior study of the discipline are analysed. The relative impact on performance of online formative quiz taking in one 15 credit first year module is compared to the impact of these other characteristics at modular, year and degree level. The case study involves in total 897 students, with particular focus on the results of one year’s results (n=201). Analysis of the data for this year found the A level grades of those who engaged with the formative MCQs were identical to those who did not engage. However, the research identified certain groups as more likely to make use of the online support: namely mature students, international students and non-A level entry students. Students who took the online quizzes offered in the first year module performed better in the module, in the first year of their studies and over the degree as a whole. The conclusion is that engagement with online formative MCQs had a very significant impact on performance: an impact that was more significant than that for any other variable: being nearly twice as significant as seminar attendance and five times more significant than prior qualifications