Abstract:

The saying "out of sight, out of mind" describes our tendency to forget things that are no longer visible or present. Gaps in formal instruction are times when schoolwork is out of sight for many students, so they forget many things that they have learned and need to retain for their future studies. One way to stem the loss of knowledge when school is not in session is to regularly remind students to review the material that they have learned by testing themselves. The Keep in School Shape (KiSS) Program is a mobile, engaging, and cost-effective way of doing this and helping students stay fresh on pre-requisite mathematical skills over academic breaks. By repurposing online survey software, the KiSS Program delivers daily review activities to students via text message or email. Resources include different levels of problems, hints, step-by-step solutions, and flashcards. These resources, together with empowering feedback messages, are designed to help students see what they remember and what they do not. This paper describes the construction of the KiSS Program and presents select results from a recent implementation of the KiSS Program at a large southwestern university to bridge courses in an introductory mathematics course sequence. Findings indicate that students are good judges of what they remember how to do and that they want help remembering what they have forgotten.

Keywords:

Testing effect, educational technology, retrieval practice, nudges.