Timely Feedback and Strengthened Study Habits via Computer Automated End-of-Lecture Questions

Timely feedback is a critical component of the educational process for both the students and the instructor. Such feedback enables students to gauge how well they are understanding the material and seek help and/or adjust study habits when needed. It also enables the instructor to alter the pace and topics of particular class periods to adjust to the needs of individuals and a class as a whole. Automated End-Of-Lecture Questions (EOLQs) can enable such feedback. The EOLQs described in this paper consisted of a set of questions that were to be answered prior to the start of the subsequent class period. They were implemented via a Course Management System (CMS). Further individualized feedback for the instructor was made quickly accessible by coupling automatically generated CMS emails with an email client filter. The assessment of the EOLQs consisted of a survey from two different classes using a 9-value Likert scale as well as one open-ended question about the EOLQs. The results of the survey and question were that the students generally felt that the EOLQs were beneficial to their learning, supplemented traditional homework well, and encouraged them to study more in total and more often. The students were not sure, however, if they were likely to use similar study techniques in future classes. Due to the small sample size (N = 19), these results should be used as a basis for further study rather than being interpreted as generalizable.