Teaching Tip: A System to Automate Scaffolding and Formative Assessment While Preventing Plagiarism: Enhancing Learning in IS and Analytics Courses That Use Excel

Authors

Raymond Frost, Ohio UniversityFollow
Vic Matta, Ohio UniversityFollow
Lauren Kenyo, Ohio UniversityFollow

Abstract

Student learning benefits from individual support and feedback. This type of support does not scale well especially in large classes. A system was built to automate the delivery of individual support and feedback on Excel assignments in information systems and analytics courses. The system embeds instructional scaffolding in the distributed assignments then grades and provides formative assessment for students’ submitted assignments. Both the scaffolding and formative assessment help students advance in their understanding. To ensure that students do their own work, the system has highly visible controls to prevent plagiarism including the ability to generate and grade unique assignments for each student. The system promotes learning, prevents plagiarism, and eases faculty grading burdens. It has been fine-tuned over two years of continuous use with thousands of students. The software is freely available from the authors for academic use.

Recommended Citation

Frost, Raymond; Matta, Vic; and Kenyo, Lauren (2021) "Teaching Tip: A System to Automate Scaffolding and Formative Assessment While Preventing Plagiarism: Enhancing Learning in IS and Analytics Courses That Use Excel," Journal of Information Systems Education: Vol. 32 : Iss. 4 , 228-243.
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/jise/vol32/iss4/1