SToMP was developed as a computer-based resource for teaching introductory-level undergraduate Physics. The development was funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils of England, Scotland and Wales, and the Department for Education in Northern Ireland. The project materials were first made available in 1995 and since then they have been used in over 300 institutions in about 35 countries. They have also been used for 'A' level teaching in many schools and colleges in the UK.
Support for these materials has now been withdrawn and they are no longer distributed. They are available within the University of Surrey and a few other institutions, but support is minimal. The main reason for this is the increasing diversity of operating systems being used in institutions, the difficulties of ensuring the integrity of this PC/internet based system with the increasing concerns about security, and the different security strategies being adopted by different institutions.
Assessment has always formed part of the SToMP materials, and for this purpose it had a built-in assessment system that has been revised from time to time. A new stand alone assessment system has recently been produced, however, and is now in use with students. This new system runs over the web and supports all the features of the previous versions, such as randomisaton of values and the ability to check numeric responses for precision as well as accuracy. It is a direct implementation of the QTI v2.1 specification and this introduces a number of additional benefits as well as providing a structured platform for the development of other new features. The use of QTI v2.1 will, it is hoped, encourage the development of new learning-directed assessments that take advantage of the new QTI features, such as adaptive questions.
A demonstration of the new SToMPII assessment system is now available and can be found here.
For more information about the new system, please contact Dick Bacon.
The new system is "lightweight" in the sense that it does not offer sufficient security or reliability for high stakes assessments, but it is eminently suitable for marked coursework, particularly where it is desired to assist the students with directed feedback, hints, multiple tries and other mechanisms being developed to help the learner. It has been used in the Physics Department at Surrey for two sets of coursework assessment (11 tests in all) during the 2009/10/11 academic years.
SToMP has recently been involved with a project to help with the "Implementation Provisioning and Support" of the QTI v2.1 specification (QTI - IPS). Their web site provides information about the project, the specification, implementations and support, as well as some useful links for those interested in this work.
The system available to University of Surrey students for coursework assignments can be found here.
The UK Physical Sciences Centre will not be operating after July 2011 due to lack of funding. Most of the resources will be available from the HEA website and there might be a legacy version of the Question Bank available there. It is intended, however, that the current version will be maintained, extended, and remain available from here.
Dick Bacon
Department of Physics
University of Surrey
21 October 2011