Peer Tutoring in Web‐based ConcepTests

Thomas E. Furtak, Joanna C. Dunlap, Todd G. Ruskell, Susan Tucker, Ray Ivatt
2010 The Physics Teacher  
39 classroom. 10, 11 It has been less clear how this instructional principle might be adapted to web-based courses and webbased course supplements. It has recently been demonstrated that the discussion phase of a ConcepTest sequence is the most critical component contributing to improved student understanding of the question. 12 This is difficult to manage over a network. A chat utility is usually available as part of a learning management system (LMS). However, students who are in a chat
more » ... sion must be online at the same time. This compromises one of the advantages of web-based learning, which is that students can study any time of the day or night without synchronizing their activities with other students. We have been developing web-based teaching methods that are modeled after strategies that work well under oncampus classroom conditions. One of the most effective of these developments is our use of simulated social interactions, which make it possible to include methods such as ConcepTests in online learning materials. Here we describe how simulated social interactions work and present encouraging results of testing with online learners. The current structure of our system is built within LON-CAPA, a flexible LMS that was originally designed as an individualized, computer-delivered homework environment. However, the principles that we have identified can be easily adapted to most any LMS that is capable of handling a quiz. It is useful if the web pages comprising the online ConcepTest can be restricted to a sequence, so that students work through the pages in a predefined order. Similar to how a ConcepTest is presented in an on-campus classroom, the online ConcepTest begins by presenting the student with a multiple-choice question. Upon submitting an answer, the student receives an image of a histogram showing how students voted on the same question in the past. In addition to the histogram, the student is presented with a textentry box, and is asked to justify his or her choice with one or two sentences of text. When the student submits this justification, the LMS stores the justification, along with the student's answer. The LMS then delivers a gallery of text responses, one for each possible answer, composed by students in the past. This appears on the same page as the student's own response and a re-statement of the question. The student is asked to consider the response gallery and to then answer the question again. Upon submitting the second vote, the student receives a second histogram, along with an explanation of the correct answer. The all-important peer instruction step is replaced by the typed justification, provided by the student, and the gallery of responses, delivered by the LMS. This "simulated social O ne of the most challenging problems in designing effective online learning materials is how to capture methods that work well in on-campus classrooms. Among these is the ConcepTest, which involves students explaining their conceptual understanding to each other. We have designed a way of achieving the same valuable learning objectives in an online environment by providing simulated social interactions through a gallery of student responses chosen from a previously collected library. Here we describe this method and show how it has worked very well in early testing. We suggest that this provides a way to bring peer tutoring into web-based courses and web-based course supplements. The development of ConcepTests, originally promoted by Eric Mazur, 1 has provided classroom teachers with a powerful method to help students internalize fundamental principles in physics. The method involves a sequence of activities, starting with the presentation of a well-designed multiple-choice question. Students are asked to commit to an answer (by writing the correct letter-choice down) without consulting their classmates. The instructor does not identify the correct answer at this point. Instead, the students are asked to defend their choices in exchanges with their neighbors. After a couple of minutes of discussion, during which the room is filled with a din of parallel conversations, the students are asked to vote on the same question again. The number of correct answers on the second vote usually exceeds the number on the first vote. At the end of the exercise, the instructor identifies the correct answer and explains the reason why. The amazing thing about the ConcepTest sequence is that the instructor enters the cycle only at the very end. Students learn through peer instruction, as they describe their thinking to each other. This phenomenon exploits principles of socially facilitated learning that have been prominently promoted by Vygotsky and others. 2 These are well-proven methods that are the foundation of active-engagement teaching. With the availability of personal communicators (clickers), ConcepTest teaching has become even more powerful. 3 A histogram of the class distribution for each of the votes can now be easily displayed. This not only tells the students where their choices fit among their classmates' , but it also provides the instructor with valuable feedback about how the method is working. ConcepTests have been examined for their effectiveness by a number of educational researchers. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Studies that deal with how to design ConcepTest questions are also available. 9
doi:10.1119/1.3274359 fatcat:j67vzm2o5jbpzojvzjq6uacaxm