Abstract:

Feedback and reflection are important to the student experience. Therefore it is important for the student to gain timely feedback that will allow them to reflect on their current performance. Both the quality and timeliness of the feedback are important factors for the student in their process of reflection.

The initial development of the QUBED system had been targeted at interactive lectures; where students could participate in the lecture by using their smartphone to answer a targeted question based on the lecture itself. The results of the student participation would be displayed in near real-time as the students were “voting” giving almost instant feedback about their understanding of the material delivered in the lecture. This offers the student the ability to reflect on how they answered the question and how their answer fitted with the answers given by their peers. It also offers the lecturer important feedback about the cohorts’ understanding of the topic material presented.

This approach would normally involve two or three questions per lecture. The authors postulated that a mobile based quiz would be beneficial to the student and to the lecturer; offering both parties feedback in greater detail and in the same timely manner. The ability to use snap quizzes based on a data bank of questions in a lecture or tutorial session allows the students to determine the level of their understanding of the topic material and prompts reflection on areas that they will need to clarify or improve upon. Engaging students in this way will help propagate active learning.

With this in mind the next phase of the QUBED system has been to construct a quiz element. As with the initial system, delivery of the quiz has been through the use of QR codes and latterly with the use of a variety of different types of quiz questions. The lecturer will be able to prepare a databank of questions which can then be randomly selected when the quiz is undertaken. The crucial aspect to the quiz will be the design of the questions and the quality of the feedback provided. Feedback to the student must be clear, coherent and unambiguous and engage the student in the process of reflection.

As the delivery platform will vary depending on the mobile device used great care is required in developing the responses to the student. The student must know which questions they answered incorrectly but more importantly they must understand why they answered the question incorrectly.
The system will return individual feedback to the student and collective feedback on how the cohort answered each question. Group feedback will be delivered in almost real-time during the lecture via the display of the appropriate chart of the students’ response. The lecturer can use the collective feedback during the lecture or tutorial to engage the students in debate about their answers and the individual feedback to pin point the areas a student needs help with.

This paper will discuss the authors’ experience in extending the QUBED system to meet the need of the snap quiz scenario and the experience gained from implementing it in the live environment.

Keywords:

Feedback, Reflection, Interactive Lectures, ARS, QR Codes.