Impact of instant and anonymous questions on participation in large lectures

Lecture sizes of courses at large universities are increasing, which could affect participation and engagement of students. The goal of this thesis is to explore a method of increasing participation in a large lecture, which could lead to more active learning in a classroom setting with a large number of students. Traditional approaches of using software to encourage class participation use existing social media, and usually focus on creating a discussion outside of class. Rather than focusing on increasing interaction between students, this work explores the effect of a one-way communication channel from the students to the lecturer. Specifically, I investigate how the ability to ask questions anonymously and instantly during a lecture (through a web application) can affect both the students and the lecturer. The contribution of this thesis is a quantitative and qualitative understanding of the effect (advantages as well as shortcomings) of allowing students to ask questions instantly and anonymously during lecture. Future work can address these shortcomings and improve on these advantages, to create tools that can improve the student and teacher experience in large lectures.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Computer Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2017

Author dc:creator

• Amithirigala, Chamila Harindi

Contributors dc:contributor

• Zilles, Craig

• Active learning
• Software in education
• Question answering
• Student feedback

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2017 Chamila Amithirigala

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/98368

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/98368