Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 11 Summer 2019 | Page 53

pre-lecture reading assignment. They answer three
questions: what was the main topic of the readings,
what they found surprising, and what they found
confusing.
The instructor is able to view responses as they are
submitted, and to take note of the concepts that
the students found confusing. To enhance students’
motivation to come to class prepared and to attend
class, the instructor follows the “Just-in-Time
Teaching” approach, and uses the answers to the last
question to tailor the class to students’ needs (Novak
et al., 1999). This is done using Conceptest-style
questions drawn from the original pool of questions
and collected in a module in Learning Catalytics™
focused on the general topic of the class period. A
typical module could include up to 20 questions, and
between seven and ten questions would be used
in each period. After class, students can access the
module and use it for self-test or review the material.
The response type in each course module can be:
• instructor-led synchronous: students respond to
questions individually and at the same time, with
an instructor present.
• Automated synchronous: students respond to
questions individually and at the same time as
they are delivered automatically; an instructor is
usually not present.
• Self-paced: students respond to questions in any
order and outside of class.
• Self-test: students respond individually to
questions and receive feedback on their
responses; this is commonly done outside of
class and used to prepare for exams.
• Team-based Assessment: students respond
individually to questions and then gather in
pre-assigned groups to answer again as a group.
Everywhere and Menti (Table 1), but with more
options that are particularly useful in STEM courses.
When the instructor launches a session, students
access it from their device and are asked to enter
their seat number. This allows the instructor to
view responses as they are submitted either as a
list or as a map (Figure 1 and 2). Correct answers
are marked in green, and incorrect ones in maroon.
If the percentage of correct responses to a specific
concept question exceeds 70%, it is considered to be
mastered (Mazur, 1997).
If the percentage of correct responses ranges
between 30% and 70%, peer-to-peer matching can
be implemented in situ: Learning Catalytics™ allows
the instructor to determine the parameters of the
grouping (e.g., two or more students, within one or
two seats, with different answers) before redelivering
the question (Figure 1). Each student submits their
answer again, and as this happens, the instructor
can monitor responses on the seating map (Figure
2). She can choose to approach a group of students
with a cluster of incorrect responses and listen to
their conversations, or engage them in a discussion
based on their chosen answer.
As the questions are delivered, students can ask a
question on their device and a window pops up on
the instructor’s screen; they can also select ‘I get it
now’ or ‘I still don’t get it’ after the correct answer
and the distribution of answers is shared (Figure 1).
This allows the instructor to answer the question,
probe the students’ understanding or choose to
review the confusing aspects of the concept with a
short lecture or demonstration in this or a following
class. This approach is recommended when the
percentage of correct answers is below 30%, or does
not increase significantly after the group discussion.
Each module can be scored from 100% participation
to 100% correctness, and each question can be
given any number of points, including 0.
The type of questions covers a broad range of
possibilities, including the ones available in Poll
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