Engaging Students Using a Simple Electronic Daily Response Journal David A. Reimann Albion College...
35
Engaging Students Using a Simple Electronic Daily Response Journal David A. Reimann Albion College Albion, Michigan Copyright 2000 ©, David A. Reimann. All rights seserved
-
Upload
meryl-watson -
Category
Documents
-
view
215 -
download
1
Transcript of Engaging Students Using a Simple Electronic Daily Response Journal David A. Reimann Albion College...
Engaging Students Using a Simple Electronic Daily Response Journal
David A. Reimann
Albion College
Albion, Michigan
Copyright 2000 ©, David A. Reimann. All rights seserved
Goals
• Improve student learning
• Simplify paperwork
• Encourage attendance
• Give students ownership of their learning
• Engage passive students
• Engage reflective students
Problems• Some introverted students feel uncomfortable
asking questions• Some students are afraid of asking “dumb
questions”• Reflective students need time to digest
material• Students miss classes for a variety of reasons
(athletics, music, special events, etc)• Student attendance does not insure learning
Previous Solutions
• Written journals
• Bulletin Boards
Written Journals• Activity
– Summarize course material– Reflect and question course concepts
• Benefits– Improve student learning– Improve thinking– Improve motivation– Low stakes writing– Provides time for reflection
Written Journals
• Problems– Delay in providing feedback– Journals can be in only one place at a time– Time demand for reviewing journals– Time of instructor in administrative aspects– No guarantee of daily writing unless processed
daily
• Activity– Students send instructor an email
• Problems– Difficult to process automatically– Can overwhelm an already busy mailbox
Bulletin Boards
• Activity– Students post journal to a bulletin board
• Advantages– No email clutter
• Problems– Lack of anonymity– Logistics
New Solution• Electronic daily response journal using a web-
based form• Process
– A student submits a daily response containing two important points from class and one unresolved question
– A related URL can be submitted for extra credit– Student name is selected from a course specific web
form– No password currently required
New Solution
• Advantages– No email clutter– No simultaneous location problems– Friendly reminder– Anonymous review for other students– Provides rapid feedback– Gives shy and reflective people a voice– The required question should foster inquiry
New Solution• Behind the scenes
– A CGI script on a Linux-based web server handles submissions
– A check is made to ensure fields contain something other than white space
– Some submitted non-questions are disallowed
– Proper submissions are sent to a file
– At 6 PM on class days, a reminder is automatically sent if no response has been received
– Each class morning, the submission file is processed to extract the recent entries
Use in Courses
• Questions are reviewed at the beginning of class (5-10 minutes)
• Provides a review of the difficult concepts of the previous class
• Provides a nice transition between classes
• Students see peer comments and questions
Selected Responses from CS1
• Important points– Decimal, base10, uses numbers from 0 through 9
– Computer programmers see Oct 31 and Dec 25 as the same
– Computers are smart. Very smart.
• Unresolved questions– How frequently is octal used in place of hexadecimal or
binary?
– Why does the hexadecimal base use letters?
– Do you think the robot team will be able to beat the world cup champs in 2050?
Survey
• A group of 29 students was polled– Five possible responses to each statement were
given– Responses were coded as integers (-2 to 2)– Histograms, means, and medians were computed
• Includes CS1, CS2, and Graphics
The daily response has improved my writing ability.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
The daily response has helped clarify course concepts.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
The daily response has stimulated my thinking about this course
outside the classroom.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
The daily response has increased my motivation.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
The daily response has improved my attendance.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
The daily response has made asking questions easier.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
The daily response has given me a voice in class.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
The daily response has fostered an inquisitive attitude.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
The daily response has facilitated classroom discussion.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er o
f R
esp
on
ses
The daily response has improved feedback on difficult concepts.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er o
f R
esp
on
ses
The daily response has made me less passive in the classroom.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
The daily response has improved my note taking skills.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
The daily response has made me a better learner.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
The email reminder has been helpful to me.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
I wish the daily response was used in all my classes.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
Overall, the daily response is a good thing in this course.
0
5
10
15
20
25
StronglyDisagree
Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree
Response
Nu
mb
er
of
Res
po
ns
es
Student Feedback
• Complaints– One student “hates” journals– Some students feel peer students can get credit
for not coming to class– Some students felt like they were not rewarded
for coming to class if they forgot to do the response
• Positives– Some students liked the chance to reflect
Observations
• Class time is required– Similar to in-class journal writing– Similar to a simple review of previous class
• Grading requires roughly 30 minutes for a class of 20 students every other week
• Log of class is helpful in future course improvements
Future Work
• Ongoing
• Future questions– Is there a correlation with gender?– Are other student questions helpful?– Did it improve student learning?– How much time was required?
• Grouping similar responses
Conclusions
• A simple electronic daily response journal was analyzed
• Logistical advantages over paper journals• Similar benefit to students
– Quick response time– Improved clarification and feedback– Facilitated classroom discussion– Made asking questions easier
• Works well for 10-20 students
Acknowledgements
• Thanks to all my students for participating in this project.
• Thank you!
