Using Instant Feedback System And Micro Exams To Enhance Active Learning

Abstract

This paper presents the outcomes of the preliminary survey in which the method of IFS was used to integrate motivating questions into the lecture presentations in order to increase the students' involvement. Instant Feedback System (IFS) enables the educators to improve their own teaching by getting instant and real-time feedback about how clear the lesson for the students is; it also advances the students' participation and active involvement that improves the understanding of the learned materials. Our long term objectives are to conduct a series of studies to explore both technological and didactic aspects of integrating the IFS system into engineering education. As a first step in our long journey, we designed a new academic course of analog electronics with motivating questions embedded. A ten minute micro exam was conducted every three weeks, during the lesson. The students expressed opinions like:" my recommendation is to keep teaching this way. I believe in active learning during the lectures, it motivates me to come and participate in the lectures." And: "It drives the students to participate in all the lectures of the course. The motivating questions and the micro exams are an efficient tool to bring the students into the lectures." Half of the students chose to participate in one micro exam at least while the other half did not; the academic achievements of the motivated group showed a 26 points advantage in comparison to the other group. The lecturer's conclusions and his perceptions are described in this paper as well.