Student Response Systems in Science and Engineering Education

Abstract

This thesis explores aspects related to the use of a Student Response System (SRS) in preparatory engineering courses at Sr-Trndelag University College (HiST), Norway. The work described here started as a part of a project in which one of the goals was to develop and test a new SRS for modern mobile devices. An important part of the project was the implementation of this system in lectures during the development stage in order to perform evaluation and conduct research on the use of SRS. Moreover, the goal was to use the results both to improve the design and functionality of the system as well as to increase the knowledge about SRS-use in science education. The main focus of this thesis is not on the actual development of the new SRS, but rather on addressing methodological choices in the main areas, in addition to the actual software, which are important for successful implementation and use of SRS in science education. These include the role of the teacher, the SRS-questions, and the di erent sequences during SRS-sessions. This thesis also tries to answer some of the unanswered questions that exist in the SRS-research scene and to increase teachers' awareness of how they use SRS in class.

The research focuses both on students' own experiences as well as observations of students engaged in peer discussion. Analyses of video clips of students discussing quiz problems during SRS-use provided insight into what students focus on in their argumentation as well as how di erent methodological choices can have a signi cant e ect on the discussions. While such observations are important for understanding various aspects of SRS-use, the success of SRS-implementation is highly dependent on students' attitudes towards the system. Students are very aware of their own learning environment and it is important that they see the bene ts of using SRS if it is to be positively received. While the use of written surveys provided an ecient way of assessing students' general attitudes in the classes using SRS, analyses of focus group interviews provided deeper insight into their experiences. Although most of the research was conducted in introductory physics classes, the majority of the results in this thesis with regard to implementing and teaching with SRS are applicable to science education in general.