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Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment of Plant Identification

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Abstract

Develo** plant identification skills is an important part of the curriculum of any botany course in higher education. Frequent practice with dried and fresh plants is necessary to recognize the diversity of forms, states, and details that a species can present. We have developed a web-based assessment system for mobile devices that is able to pose appropriate questions according to the location of the student. A student’s location can be obtained using the device position or by scanning a QR code attached to a dried plant sheet in a herbarium or to a fresh plant in an arboretum. The assessment questions are complemented with elaborated feedback that, according to the students’ responses, provides indications of possible mistakes and correct answers. Three experiments were designed to measure the effectiveness of the formative assessment using dried and fresh plants. Three questionnaires were used to evaluate the system performance from the students’ perspective. The results clearly indicate that formative assessment is objectively effective compared to traditional methods and that the students’ attitudes towards the system were very positive.

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Notes

  1. There are several matrix codes (Kato and Tan 2007). Among them, the QR code is perhaps the most common in mobile applications, because it has an official standard (ISO 2006) and can be used freely. QR code (quick response code) is a trademark of the Japanese company Denso Wave (a Toyota subsidiary). It can encode all types of data. In particular, it can encode a string and hence a URL.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. E.T.S.Ing. Informática, Universidad de Malaga, 29071, Málaga, Spain

    Ricardo Conejo & Beatriz Barros

  2. E.T. Ing. Forestal, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, 28071, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Ignacio Garcia-Viñas & Aitor Gastón

Authors
  1. Ricardo Conejo
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  2. Juan Ignacio Garcia-Viñas
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  3. Aitor Gastón
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  4. Beatriz Barros
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Correspondence to Ricardo Conejo.

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Conejo, R., Garcia-Viñas, J.I., Gastón, A. et al. Technology-Enhanced Formative Assessment of Plant Identification. J Sci Educ Technol 25, 203–221 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-015-9586-0

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