LAPT Background & Technical Info
 
Dissemination of the practice of Certainty-Based Marking
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Go to :   EXERCISE MENU ,   LAPT home page,   Download (developers only),   Publications,   ARGM/med,  
.. or you can enter a URL, local path or 'indexname' for an exercise (.js file) : & Click Go!

LAPT is a web system hosted at University College London (UCL) or at http://tmedwin.net/cbm/selftests, Prof. Gardner-Medwin's independent site. Much of the material has been written by staff & students at London universities. Some is available openly here, some via restricted LMS access.
LAPT was devised and is maintained by Prof. Tony Gardner-Medwin (emeritus Prof. of Physiology, UCL). No installation is required, and external use is actively encouraged.
LAPT gives easy access (on any web-compatible computer) for new users to experience and use certainty-based marking, especially valuable when using self-tests as a study tool.
LAPT works with exercise files from the web or (in some circumstances) from a local drive. Marking is immediate and doesn't require a continuous online connection.

SUITABLE BROWSERS : MSIE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari etc. should be OK. They evolve though, so report any problems. Check your system allows POPUPS (new windows created by software).  Mobile tablet computers should work also.
SUBMISSION OF RESULTS:  Click 'Finish' at the end of an exercise. This records your data and comments, anonymously except within UCL where we ask for authentication for statistical purposes on UCL machines, and other sites where access may be via a VLE (e.g. Blackboard or Moodle).  In no way will information be used for your assessment unless you are clearly told otherwise, in course material.
ERRORS / SUGGESTIONS :  Use the Comment option in an exercise (which automatically includes context information), or email to a.gardner-medwin@ucl.ac.uk.
PROBLEMS in use: Try 'Shift' + 'Reload' or 'Refresh'. Check popups are not disabled.  E-mail ANY unexplained problem to a.gardner-medwin@ucl.ac.uk (with browser details).
ACCESS and CONDITIONS:  Use of this site is free. No liability of any sort is admitted in consequence of such use. Some areas may be password protected. Copyright of academic material on this site (text, images) belongs to authors (or to their institution), and use other than through this web site requires written permission. You can use this software to run material on your own website own local material . You can use LAPT via links from within any VLE. Submitted grades are stored within LAPT. UCL and Imperial College authorised staff can edit files and access student reports here and students can access their own reports here. CBM can be incorporated within Moodle (see Info, downloads & Moodle demos). Code enhancements for Moodle include full feedback and import/export plugins to transfer Qs between LAPT & Moodle.
NEW MATERIAL: Collaboration on development of new material is a prime objective of this project. Email to a.gardner-medwin@ucl.ac.uk
AUTHORING :  There is a comprehensive manual. The easiest way to write Qs is usually to adapt examples (e.g. from the manual or a related exercise), using a plain-text editor (not WORD, unless you know how to stop it introducing special characters). There is also an online authoring tool, but unless you are using many different options, it is usually simpler to copy, paste and edit to create new Qs in similar formats.
PROBLEMS, QUERIES: Contact Tony Gardner-Medwin (a.gardner-medwin@ucl.ac.uk).

HEFCE FDTL4 Project (2002-2005) at UCL :  Dissemination of formative confidence-based exercises
Aims:
1. To facilitate the dissemination of a successful innovative teaching system from UCL to other institutions
2. To develop reflective study habits in students, through use of confidence-based marking
3. To improve the reliability and validity of exam data through the use of confidence-based assessment
4. To facilitate institutional sharing of formative and summative exercises, in all disciplines
5. To extend the assessment and practice of numeracy skills with these techniques, in new contexts and at new levels
6. To encourage the evaluation and adoption of confidence-based marking by software vendors and exam boards
Background:
The LAPT teaching system (London Agreed Protocol for Teaching ) was initiated in 1994 following discussions with Physiology Departments of several London Medical Schools (now mainly amalgamated within UCL and Imperial College). The principal aim, which required development of a new system rather than use of any available commercial system at the time, was to introduce confidence assessment, where students rate their certainty for each answer along with the answer itself, into routine study practice. This helps students develop the habit of reflecting and analysing where their knowledge comes from. We now have a base of over 10,000 questions and much directly associated instructional material. This is widely used, with over a million marked answers per year at UCL, mostly in medical and BSc students’ self-directed study, and partly at the students' suggestion, was adopted as a more fair and efficient system in the medical students' pre-clinical exams. Project Review
A.R. Gardner-Medwin,  Dept. Physiology (NPP), UCL, London WC1E 6BT, 2013