Peer Tutoring in Web-based ConcepTests

Abstract

The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 48, January 2010 39 classroom.10,11 It has been less clear how this instructional principle might be adapted to web-based courses and webbased course supplements. It has recently been demonstrated that the discussion phase of a ConcepTest sequence is the most critical component contributing to improved student understanding of the question.12 This is difficult to manage over a network. A chat utility is usually available as part of a learning management system (LMS). However, students who are in a chat discussion must be online at the same time. This compromises one of the advantages of web-based learning, which is that students can study any time of the day or night without synchronizing their activities with other students. We have been developing web-based teaching methods that are modeled after strategies that work well under oncampus classroom conditions. One of the most effective of these developments is our use of simulated social interactions, which make it possible to include methods such as ConcepTests in online learning materials. Here we describe how simulated social interactions work and present encouraging results of testing with online learners. The current structure of our system is built within LON-CAPA, a flexible LMS that was originally designed as an individualized, computer-delivered homework environment. However, the principles that we have identified can be easily adapted to most any LMS that is capable of handling a quiz. It is useful if the web pages comprising the online ConcepTest can be restricted to a sequence, so that students work through the pages in a predefined order. Similar to how a ConcepTest is presented in an on-campus classroom, the online ConcepTest begins by presenting the student with a multiple-choice question. Upon submitting an answer, the student receives an image of a histogram showing how students voted on the same question in the past. In addition to the histogram, the student is presented with a textentry box, and is asked to justify his or her choice with one or two sentences of text. When the student submits this justification, the LMS stores the justification, along with the student’s answer. The LMS then delivers a gallery of text responses, one for each possible answer, composed by students in the past. This appears on the same page as the student’s own response and a re-statement of the question. The student is asked to consider the response gallery and to then answer the question again. Upon submitting the second vote, the student receives a second histogram, along with an explanation of the correct answer. The all-important peer instruction step is replaced by the typed justification, provided by the student, and the gallery of responses, delivered by the LMS. This “simulated social Peer Tutoring in Web-based ConcepTests