This paper was presented at the 2008 Engineering Conference - Innovation Good Practice and Research in Engineering Education.
Growing student numbers are eroding the potential for teachers and learners to communicate in a meaningful learning conversation. This paper will show how assessment and teaching can be integrated inclass using an Electronic Voting System (EVS). The motivation being to reduce the erosion and enhance the teaching and learning in large class settings. In this case a series of regular EVSsupported formative tests were used. Results of the EVS tests were used immediately to help diagnose the learning and also provide intelligence in which to make purposive teaching adaptations.
In addition to exploring the use of EVS the paper also presents the benefits of coupling questions around themes. In doing so the students’ real understanding can be explored. A review of the results from the coupled questions suggests many students still struggle with some fundamental concepts. This information was not as apparent with traditional oneoff questions. The results from the coupled questions also highlighted contradictions in the student’s own answers.
