"Time to onboard is very fast. The more you use Ans in a consistent way, the more questions you will gather in the question bank. You can use the questions from these question banks to use later on in other tests, so that the actual time to create new tests decreases. Also, colleagues can use each other’s questions via this question bank. In addition to this, the questions in the question bank can be reviewed and checked by a colleague in advance of the exam preparation, leading to an increased quality level overall."
What specific pain points of yours has Ans been able to address?
We started to investigate the possibilities of Ans since before COVID-19. At that time, we were looking for a way to make the grading process easier. We wanted to grade the questions horizontally. By horizontally, we mean that the first question for every student is graded and then the second question and so forth. Also our students always make extensive elaborations on paper to show the teacher how they approached a calculation. So this always produced a lot of paper for the teachers and graders to bring to home for the grading process. This was another criteria for us to look into Ans and solve this. At the moment COVID19 knocked on our doors, we found that with Ans, we could easily adapt by converting the normal paper tests into digital tests which students could do at home.
How do you think using Ans has impacted your students?
Tremendously. We hear that students like the Ans-software and it’s easy for them to access due to the SURFconext procedure. They can use their own NHL Stenden credentials to log-in to Ans.
If a fellow teacher asked you regarding your usage of Ans,
what would the first few lines of your experience regarding Ans sound like?
Try it and see for yourselves! Ans is easy to start with, but still has possibilities for those teachers that are looking for some extra functionalities. At the moment, the Python programming capabilities are widely used amongst our colleagues. Some teachers are really getting into it, so they can connect to outside libraries to use within the assignments (Coolprop, math). Furthermore, the programming makes it possible to define random variables so every student actually gets different numbers within their assignment.
Do you think that Ans was worth the cost in terms of money and time to onboard?
Yes! Time to onboard is very fast. The more you use Ans in a consistent way, the more questions you will gather in the question bank. You can use the questions from these question banks to use later on in other tests, so that the actual time to create new tests decreases. Also, colleagues can use each other’s questions via this question bank. In addition to this, the questions in the question bank can be reviewed and checked by a colleague in advance of the exam preparation, leading to an increased quality level overall.