How are Online delivered Computer Managed Tests (CMTS) in Chemistry used for collaborative learning?

Developed curriculum
The principal first level Chemistry course offered to students in semester one generally has enrolment numbers of between 1000 and 1300, and more recently exceeding 1400.  Students are allocated to one of three lecture streams, each with 36 lectures supported by ten PASS {see Example: Miller1} sessions each semester. Assessment comprises a final MCQ exam (60%), five laboratory practicals (20%), and four progressive computer generated tests (CMTs) (20%). Each CMT is a set of twelve questions randomly and uniquely generated from a lecturer devised testbank comprising mostly MCQs, but also a limited number of true/false and short, numerical answer questions. Approximately 5,000 tests are generated and marked by the system each semester. Students are notified of the release and return dates for each test and can download and work on each set for up to one week.

Pre-PASS assessment practice
Before PASS was introduced into the curriculum in 2001, students were able to attempt the CMT questions by themselves or with friends or family, before they lodged their results one week later. Problems associated with this method were subsequently identified; viz. with out-of-town or international students, availability of family or friends was limited or non-existent, especially during semester one. The extent to which postgraduate tutors within tutorial groups could help students was also limited as the test results formed part of the final grade, and the tutorial focus was on the assessment tasks and not on the identification of students' capabilities to critique or explore the validity of their assumptions in solving discipline related problems. There was little provision in place for individual student learning deficits or misunderstandings to be identified and amended. 

Post-PASS assessment practice
Since 2001 and within the non-judgmental and collaboratively focussed PASS environment, students are at ease with their peers and near-peer second and third year student leaders whom they know have just completed the course a semester or two earlier, and whose credibility concerning approaches to study and assessment practice is trusted.  Students are encouraged to bring their completed or partially completed CMTs to PASS where time is allocated during the session to the discussion of any difficulties that they may have encountered. Leaders, who re-attend first year lectures together with other first year students, can draw attention to lecture and course text material that are pertinent to the problem at hand.  By directing and re-directing leading questions back to students, leaders are able to readily identify the cause of any miscomprehension and guide subsequent knowledge constructs in a language that is meaningful to them.  Much round-table discussion can be generated until the proverbial 'light-bulb' is finally switched on! 

The advantage of this learning method is that leaders, being students themselves, are not seen as all-knowing postgraduate students who can always identify the correct answer or process to solve a particular problem. Leaders can therefore work with first year students as their just-more-learned co-workers. When students say for example that they "just don't get it", leaders are in a unique empathic position of being able to unearth why the students can not comprehend what it is that they do not understand. 

It is acceptable in this environment for leaders to refer to texts, or consult with other students and with each other.  Even though leaders can for the most part solve the problem or know the correct answer, that small element of doubt in their ability to be always 100% correct is what effectively creates the collegial atmosphere of learning between leaders and students in PASS. The leaders do not know the correct answers, and are not involved with marking their CMTs.  In consequence, students are no longer afraid to voice their concerns, or admit defeat, because PASS has provided them with the ideal environment where they are able to work at their CMTs in active, small-group collaboration with peers and leaders.