Development of Content for a New RLO, Based on a Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Students' Writing

This pilot-study used new methods to identify specific areas of weakness in students' writing, in the Mathematics Statistics and Operational Research (MSOR) subject areas. The results produced clear recommendations for specific content for reusable learning objects (RLOs) to improve students' writing.Many students have poor skills in writing; the initial question was to identify which areas were poor. A new mechanism for analysis derived from Halliday's 1973 text-context-functions model allowed students' written work to be tested at the ideas function, the interpersonal function and the signpost functions. Specific instruments tested each function: the use of definitions tested ideas, the audience awareness scale tested the interpersonal and a text function scale tested signposting.Significance at pamp;#8804;0.01 for using or not-using definitions was revealed using Chi Squared X^2 statistical analysis; 73% of participants used interpersonal language but no significance was found for audience awareness. Significance at pamp;#8804;0.025% was found for text signposting. Thus this original study resulted in clear recommendations for content for RLOs which is responsive, i.e., based on specific students' needs, that is pedagogically meaningful and empirically derived. Additionally new qualitative and quantitative methods were devised that were capable of disentangling the key areas of weakness in students' writing