How quiz-based tools can improve students' engagement and participation in the classroom

Abstract

Student Response Systems exhibit a long usage history, begun with clickers and recently evolved toward Web- based systems. Several studies show that they improve students' engagement and participation, but also show some drawbacks (clickers costs, distraction and equity in Web-based systems). In this paper, we present our implementation of a Student Response System integrated within a collaborative application. Our approach does not require an Internet connection, has no cost, is flexible, and includes the possibility of arranging a Student Response Systems with a wide set of collaborative tools. We also present an evaluation study involving teachers and students from a high school. Results show improvements in students' participation and engagement. Finally we found some differences between the teachers and students groups with regard to user experience, usefulness, and long-term behaviors.