Formative Assessment in Large Lecture Courses

Using Learning Catalytics

Mitch McVeyDepartment of Biology

Medford campus

My prior experiences with class response systems:

- Students vote with raised hands4 semesters with 400 student Intro Bio course

- Index cards, students hold up to vote3 semesters with 60 student Molecular Biology course

- iClickers1 semester with 60 student Molecular Biology course

My two experiences with Learning Catalytics:

1. 60 students in an upper-level Molecular Biology lecture course (Spring 2014)

- students used during class (3-4 questions per class, synchronous mode)

2. 50 students in a mid-level Biology of Aging lecture course (Fall 2014)

- students used during class (3-4 questions per class, synchronous mode)- also used to deliver a weekly problem set (10 questions per problem set, self-paced mode)

An example of a typical class…

It’s easy to assign participation grades

Reasons that I chose Learning Catalytics:

1. Flexibility

- many types of questions I can ask

2. Cost

- cheaper than iClickers for the students

3. Ease of use

- uses a device that most students bring to class(smartphone, tablet, or laptop)

Concerns that I had when I started:

1. Not all students would have access to a response device

2. The system would be too complicated for me to use

3. The system would be too complicated for the studentsto use.

4. The wireless capacity in the classroom would be insufficient

Ovreall, students were satisfied with LC

Students liked the “free”dom

Equal split of phones and laptops

Most did not use it as a pre-exam study tool

Being able to see other people's responses after our professor sent them to our devices was very helpful as I didn't feel like I was the only one a little lost at times.

I really like the different types of questions that can be answered with Learning Catalytics.

I also think that it is somehow less intimidating than using iClickers.

The expansion beyond multiple choice questions was an extremely useful tool. This allowed for greater thinking about a question to happen, and also, for more opinion based questions, allowed an opportunity for you to see other people's opinions.

What was good about Learning Catalytics?

What did they have problems with?

I think it could be used even more often.

I think a class-long review session, or at least a longer period of time, of just LC questions would be very helpful for review as an entire class.

Maybe an explanation of the correct answer could also be provided on your device, since sometimes the clarity of a spoken explanation is confusing/hard to look back on and remember.

Use for students who sit far away from each other to discuss questions by typing or recording.

Having a phone out all the time can be a distraction.

How could Learning Catalytics use be improved?

I think I’ll keep using LC