Teaching Courses With Tablet Pc: Experience And Student Feedback

This paper summarizes the author’s experience and student feedback from a sophomore level course on Electric Circuits that was taught using a Tablet PC in Spring of 2006. A Tablet PC (Lenovo X41) was used in the classroom, which was interfaced with a data projector. A screen capture software (Camtasia) was used to record voice and inscriptions on the screen of the Tablet PC. The classroom session was recorded as two files: a Camtasia video file which was converted to a movie file in the “Windows Media File” format, and a “Windows Journal” file for the screen writings which was converted to a PDF file. Both files were uploaded to the Blackboard Learning System within two hours after the end of the class. A detailed survey was conducted at the end of the semester on the effectiveness of using the Tablet PC in the classroom. Contrary to initial skepticism, student attendance remained normal throughout the semester, and students downloaded and replayed the movie files of lectures, and took printout of PDF files of classnotes. Students mentioned that by not taking classnotes during the live classroom session helped them concentrate more on understanding of concepts rather than transcribing the lecture. Movie files are a great supplement to classroom instruction since they can be replayed multiple times by the students to clarify concepts they missed in the classroom, or if they have missed a lecture altogether. From the instructor’s perspective, it was a great experience with better than expected student acceptance and classroom interaction.