The Future of Education

Personal response systems in classrooms have been used in a variety of fields in higher education as a tool that facilitates instant class answer activities. Moreover, it has been widespread in recent years due to the use of smartphone applications and internet connection. Before that, clickers with licensed software were also used for this purpose [1]. It has been widely studied that the gamification via the personal response systems contributes to engage students to the subject and creates a more positive and active atmosphere in the classroom. In addition, it is also useful for monitoring learning and it has been identified as and effective learning tool [2, 3]. However, some authors claim that grades from personal response systems should not be part of the summative assessment and they can only be considered as a formative assessment [4]. In this study, the correlation between grades from traditional methodologies (test exams, problem exams, exercises and laboratory reports) and from a personal response system differently weighted (based on the response time, with penalization on incorrect responses and without penalization) have been analyzed in a variety of mechanical engineering subjects. The study shows differences between the subjects, but mainly less-reflexive traditional activities such as test exams and short exercises reflect significant correlation with personal response systems. These results suggest that grades obtained by personal response systems could also be used as part of the summative assessment in some subjects.

Keywords: Gamification, Kahoot, personal response, clickers, formative, summative;

References:
[1] G.A. DeBourgh, "Use of classroom “clickers” to promote acquisition of advanced reasoning skills", Nurse Educ. Pract. 8 (2008). doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2007.02.002.
[2] Dichev, C., Dicheva, D. “Gamifying education: what is known, what is believed and what remains uncertain: a critical review” International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education 14(9), (2017) doi: 10.1186/s41239-017-0042-5
[3] S.A. Gauci, A.M. Dantas, D.A. Williams, R.E. Kemm, "Promoting student-centered active learning in lectures with a personal response system", Am. J. Physiol. - Adv. Physiol. Educ. 33 (2009). doi:10.1152/advan.00109.2007.
[4] G. Gibbs, C. Simpson, "Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Students’ Learning", Learn. Teach. High. Educ. 1 (2004) 3–31.  http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/3609