October 27, 2006
Technology gives students, professors instant feedback
PERSONAL TOUCH—Students in a class taught by Frank Wolfs, professor of physics, use a handheld device as part of a system called the Personal Response System to gauge how well they are comprehending course material.
hen Laura Arnold ’10 prepares for her honors physics course, she remembers to pack a small electronic device along with her notebook. It’s not a PDA or an iPod. Known as the Personal Response System, the device is one way Professor Frank Wolfs is able to gauge the progress—or lack thereof—of students like Arnold.
“Communication has improved because of technology,” says Wolfs. “This way you get a more honest response about their progress.”
At the beginning of class, Wolfs quizzes the students using the Personal Response System, or PRS. The tool connects to the professor’s computer and records responses to questions. The answers are then recorded, analyzed, and displayed on a projection screen in an easy-to-read histogram.
This type of instant feedback decreases the amount of time professors or teaching assistants spend grading papers and instead allows them to immediately know how well their students are grasping the material. Although some students who find the subject matter difficult or confusing may not raise a concern or ask a question in class, thanks to the device their confusion does not go unnoticed.
Wolfs uses several layers of technology in his class, and students like Arnold say that’s exactly how it should be. “I couldn’t imagine physics without technology,” says Arnold. “I couldn’t fathom how they did physics prior to the computer. I give Newton props.”
Even homework in Wolfs class has gone high-tech. Students use WeBWorK, a freely distributed Web-based tool that gives immediate feedback on individualized problem sets, letting students know when their answers are right and when they are wrong.
“I hate the uncertainty with the written work,” Arnold says. “We are a generation who needs instant gratification.”
“No matter what tool you use for homework, nothing is perfect,” Wolfs notes. “But if students know they are wrong, they will try to get it right.”
WeBWorK, which was created by University mathematicians Michael Gage and Arnold Pizer, recently received a National Science Foundation grant for nearly half a million dollars. The grant was awarded to the University to expand and improve the program by making the interface more user-friendly as a way to broaden its appeal. The program, used in math and in physics and astronomy courses at Rochester, also is in use at more than 100 institutions ranging from large public and private research universities like Cornell and Columbia to community colleges and high schools.
The technology has become so popular because it has opened up a new level of communication between professors and students, says Vicki Roth, director of learning assistance services, dean of sophomores, and project evaluator for WeBWorK. Professors like Wolf who use the program are able to see who is struggling with the material because the program keeps track of how many attempts are made to solve it, who is getting the answer right or wrong, and who is not attempting the homework at all. With the traditional grading system, this type of monitoring was possible but not feasible due to class size and time constraints. In the past, Wolfs says, he would never have been able to have a weekly graded quiz because it would have taken too much time to create it, grade it, analyze the score, and share the results with students. Now, students take the quiz with a touch of a button on the PRS and the results follow shortly after.
In the end, even technology proponents like Arnold still value the one-on-one time with their professors. And even techno-savvy professors like Wolfs go back to the basics: “Sometimes a good old-fashioned blackboard is still the best tool.”
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