Introducing Online Quizzes into Lab-Based Teaching in University

Abstract

ICE is a virtual learning environment developed based on Moodle and currently heavily applied at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU). ICE is found to be an effective tool to enhance the teaching and learning experiences for both teachers and students. In this paper, we propose to introduce online quizzes on ICE into the lab-based teaching to address three existing issues in current lab-based teaching practices. These issues include a lack of initiative for lab preparation for students, missing out key information during the lab-teaching process, and insufficient support for lab instructors on planning the lab contents based on students’ understanding on key theoretical concepts. We expect that the online quizzes based on ICE will motivate students, reinforce their knowledge basis to conduct the lab experiments and facilitate lab instructors to make a better lab teaching plan according to students’ understanding on the lab contents. Further evidences are yet to be found to understand the benefits of the designed online quizzes.