Abstract:

A key aspect of teaching is knowing the students’ degree of understanding and assimilation of the subject after the lecturer's explanations. Evaluation through examination is one way to evaluate it. However, it cannot be done repeatedly on every topic, as it consumes a lot of time and effort for lecturers and students. A possible solution to this issue is using several software applications to conduct online quizzes. These allow students to take rapid tests in class through the web, smartphone, or tablet. Results are displayed instantly, so students can immediately get feedback. This lets them know the weakest points in their knowledge of the subject. The lecturers can also obtain valuable information, detecting which content should be reviewed or discussed later in more detail.

Since the Socrative tool began to be used extensively in classrooms around 2012, there has been enough time to determine the influence that this tool may have on teaching. Undoubtedly, the speed at which the test is performed and the ability to obtain the results are significant advantages. There is no cost when the students use their smartphones, and Socrative has a free version. Students generally value surveys using these types of apps in the classroom. However, the tests are carried out with one objective: for students to better understand the concepts and contents, with the ultimate goal of preparing them better for the end-of-term examinations. In fact, some students assume that using these tests will positively influence their grades, although this is not always the case.

In this work, a study was carried out to determine the influence of the quick surveys used with Socrative on the final grades in the theory part of the end-of-term examination of a Chemical Processing Engineering-related subject. The tests were carried out on some syllabus topics at the end of several classes. The average grades of the theory questions of the topics with and without a test were compared individually. The study was carried out in the spring semesters of 2023 and 2024. Such a comparison indicates no statistically significant difference between both grades. However, at least one crucial factor that affected the study was detected. This is because the students did not prepare well for the final theory exam, studying the second half of the topics much less than the first half. This is deduced from the apparent difference in average grades between block 1 of topics and block 2. If this factor is isolated, the results for the year 2024 do show a slight influence of taking the quick tests in class on the final grade. Although the study must be continued, expanded, and deepened to obtain clearer conclusions, these preliminary results open the door to developing novel initiatives to improve the learning experience in higher education, highlighting the fact that students from X generation welcome the use of the internet and interactive tools in the classroom for educational purposes.

Keywords:

Socrative, quick test, grades, smartphones, interactive tools.