SAM Projects: Saving Your School Time and Money
Steven Freund / University of Central Florida
Session Overview
Introduction About SAM SAM @ UCF Time and Money Savings Student Performance Best Practices Contact Information Questions and Answers
Introduction
Steven FreundCoordinate two high-enrollment
introductory computer courses~5,000 students per yearTeach computer concepts, Windows
basics, and Microsoft OfficeSAM plays a critical role in both courses
About SAM
Skills Assessment Manager Assessment Training Projects
Projects use auto-grading technology to provide students with instant feedback
Projects mirror end of chapter exercises in Shelly Cashman, New Perspectives, and Illustrated Office 2007 books
Capstone projects serve as a “final exam” for each Office program
About SAM
SAM 2007 v6.0 (available this Summer) will grade Access projects
No technical expertise required to set up or use SAM
Great help with accreditation
SAM @ UCF
Two courses: CGS 1060 and CGS 2100
CGS 1060SAM used for weekly Word, PowerPoint,
and Excel assignmentsSAM “exams” given at the end of
teaching each Office programPractice “exams” help prepare students
SAM @ UCF
CGS 2100Traditional assignmentsSAM exams given at the end of teaching
each Office programPractice exams
SAM @ UCF
CGS 1060:http://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cgs1060
CGS 2100http://www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cgs2100
Time and Money Savings
Students receive instant feedback and detailed reports about their performance (and errors)
Students know exactly where they need to improve
You immediately can adjust your curriculum to help reinforce concepts students are missing
Time and Money Savings
You also can adjust your curriculum to spend less time teaching concepts students “get.”
On average, it takes our teaching assistants one hour to grade an assignment for a class of 30 students
Time and Money Savings
Let’s do the math!1 lab section has 9 SAM “activities”
each semester1 hour per week dedicated to grading
the “activity”$8 / hour for a teaching assistant$8 x 9 hours per semester = $72 per 30
students
Time and Money Savings
If our CGS 1060 class has 1,000 students in a given semester, that saves us $2,400
But wait… there’s more!That’s just for one class in one semesterWe still have two other semesters… and CGS 2100!
UCF ends up saving about $10,000 per year
Student Performance
We easily can track student performance
My research has shown that students who take the practice test (and succeed) usually get an A on the real test
Extremely consistent scoring
Best Practices
“Practice” and “real” testsPay attention to Frequency Analysis
ReportsIn large classes, import your usersMake SAM Training available to your
students
Contact Information
Steven FreundUniversity of Central FloridaE-mail: [email protected]: (407) 823-4697
Questions and Answers