Results of a study that explored the use of student created cheat-sheets and the impact on performance.

1. Student Created Cheat-Sheets in Examinations Michael de Raadt

2. Examinations Closed book Open book Restricted Teacher created notes Student created notes  cheat-sheets Purpose = exploring use of cheat-sheets Context = introductory programming

3. Research about Open Book Advantages Reduced anxiety Shift from memorisation to reasoning Reduction of cheating Better average performance Disadvantages Less preparation time  superficial learning Lookup time  reliance on text  poorer performance

4. Research about Cheat-sheets Dickson and Miller (psychology exams) No help in learning Erbe (education) and others Help with learning lower Blooms levels Help prepare students, exam is learning activity (awards for best cheat-sheet)

5. Research Questions Do students who create cheat-sheets perform better? Do cheat-sheets lift performance? What features can be identified on cheat-sheets? Do features relate to performance?

6. Examination Setting Introductory programming Prior Sample exam Told about cheat-sheet Hand-written A4, double sided Examination 50 marks Included language reference 89 students (21% on-campus, 79% external) 72 cheat sheets (81%)

7. Performance 32.5 23.9 T-test (equality of means) t=2.5, p=0.016

8. Improvement

9. Features

10. Conclusions Evidence supports theory that cheat-sheets have impact Recommendations Use cheat sheets Advise students thorough review, match course content order general, abstract representations don’t assume sample answers will help Future work replications (cross-institutional, interdisciplinary, longitudinal)

11. Questions Please ask in forum