Introduction to Numbas
Chris Graham
School of Mathematics, Statistics & Physics Digital Learning Unit
Introductions
I'm Chris Graham, Director of Digital Learning in MSP
I'm joined today by Vicky Hall (Maths Aid Senior Tutor)
Let's have a quick round the room...
Workshop plan
Here's the rough plan:
| 13:00-13:30 | Part 1) Introduction: what's it about and demo |
| 13:30-14:00 | Part 2) Getting started with Numbas: tutorial walk-through |
| 14:00-14:30 | --- Hands-on free time: creating content --- |
| 14:30-15:00 | Part 3) Numbas at Newcastle |
| 15:00-16:00 | --- Hands-on free time: adding content to Canvas --- |
Part 1) Introduction
What is Numbas?
Numbas is a web-based e-assessment system designed primarily for mathematical subjects.
- Developed at Newcastle University for over 10 years.
- Free and open source.
- Used around the world.
Why use Numbas?
Online assessment of procedural, mathematical questions has two features:
🏆 Instant feedback: Get immediate feedback and receive a full solution for each instance of the question.
🏆 Randomisation: Practise similar questions over and over again.
More features
- Scalable, reliable and accessible to a broad range of users
- Easy to use for teachers and students. Used by question authors who aren't experts
- Customisable everywhere, from the theme to the functionality
- Flexible delivery: through VLE, standalone, embedded, even offline
- Lots of maths features
- JSXGraph, Eukleides, Geogebra integration
- Support for matrices, vectors, quantities with units
- Work with data files / JSON
- Marking of computer code
- Error-carried forward marking
- Alternative answers
What is Numbas used for?
Pre-entry material, transition, diagnostic tests, in-course practice, in-course assessment, final exams...
We'll look at this in more detail later...
Demo
A quick look at a Numbas test:
Part 2) Getting started with Numbas
Using Numbas
There are two components to Numbas:
-
The Numbas Editor, where content is created
-
The Numbas External Tool (LTI tool), which manages student attempts
Public Numbas Editor
Open to everyone
5,000+ users at 1,000+ institutions registered on public editor.
Collect ready-made questions into a custom test
8,000+ questions and exams released for free reuse under an open access licence. Translated into 15 languages.
Or write your own.
Next steps
- Create an account on the Numbas Editor (note MSP colleagues you can just log in!)
- Navigate to the Numbas documentation
(numbas-editor.readthedocs.io) - We're going to try out the first question tutorial
Part 3) Numbas at Newcastle
Set up
Numbas integrates closely with Canvas:
- Teachers create questions in the Numbas Editor
- External tool in Canvas for formative and summative assessment
- Lockdown browser for high stakes assessments
Numbas trends at Newcastle
A few trends from the past year:
- More diverse and extensive formative assessment
- Dramatic increase in use, particularly in engineering
- Remote 'labs' using Numbas
- Hybrid tests
- Final exams
Numbas use by School
Units example
Formative assessment
More formative use; more appreciation of the "weekly quiz".
Increasing use in physics, engineering, chemistry...
More diverse applications to ask questions involving e.g. R, SPSS, Minitab.
Remote Labs
Hybrid assessments
Used for in-course assessment and final exams
Typically 60-80% auto-marked. Focus manual marking where it is needed.
Final exams: Remote
During Covid, "4 in 24" hybrid off-campus format used across all of our stage 1 modules in maths and physics.
Post-Covid, mostly on campus exams, but some remote retained. Flexible start time format favoured (e.g. start between 9:30 and 10:30)
Final exams: In-person
28 exams with 6000 exam sittings in Numbas.
Most exams run in Safe Exam Browser.
Exam sittings by format:
Numbas in Canvas demo
Let's have a go at adding a Numbas test to Canvas...
Questions?
Thanks for listening
Contacts:
Useful links:
- Numbas Website numbas.org.uk
- Numbas Editor numbas.mathcentre.ac.uk