Enriching the synergetic instructor-student assessments with a web-based audience response system

In recent years, higher education has experienced a rapid increase in the use of audience response systems. This is primarily due to their ability to actively enhance individual and group engagement and learning by providing critical and instant feedback. This instant feedback is critical to both students and instructors. Drawbacks of traditional feedback through homework and tests/quizzes include the slow response rate for students and the tediousness for instructors. Summative assessments in the form of tests and exams are not sufficient measures of students' understanding and application of knowledge ^1-2. Students need continuous formative assessments to monitor their learning by actively evaluating their level of understanding. Additionally, there is the present need to satisfy the dynamic technology-based demands of current engineering students. In an attempt to address these challenges, a web-based audience response system was employed in an introductory engineering course at a large, land-grant university in the mid-Atlantic region. This introductory course is offered in multiple sections in the first-year engineering program. It is the second in a two-semester, two-course sequence and a prerequisite for all the majors in the engineering college. The web-based audience response system was employed over multiple years in multiple sections of the course. This paper outlines the multi-year application of the system with an approach that can be utilized in any class size. An assessment of the impact on student learning, level of interest and satisfaction with the course are presented. It also discusses students overall assessment of the course. Finally, the strengths and limitations of the system's implementation are discussed with recommendations for first-time users of the technology.