Work-in-Progress: Promoting Learning through a Prompt Feedback on Assignments and Quizzes in Peer-to-Peer Meetings with Students in Electronics I Course

Arash Takshi; Chris Ferekides

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Electrical and Computer Engineering Division Poster Session
Page Count: 8
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40399
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40399
Download Count: 276

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Paper Authors

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Arash Takshi

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Dr. Arash Takshi graduated in electronics from Amir Kabir University of Technology in Iran in 1993. He received his M.Sc. in analog electronics from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran in 1996. He received his Ph.D. in the field of organic electronics from the University of British Columbia, UBC, (Canada) in 2007. From 2007 to 2009 he was a postdoc fellow at UBC working on biophotovoltaic devices. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF) teaching Electronics I, II, and CMOS VLSI courses.

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Chris Ferekides University of South Florida

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Chris S. Ferekides received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of South Florida. He has been a faculty member in the Electrical Engineering Department since 1992. He is currently service as the department chair, and is the principal investigator of a NSF Funded RED Project that addresses the professional formation of electrical engineering students. His research is in the areas of electronic materials with a focus on photovoltaics.

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Abstract

In this work-in-progress article, I present descriptive, preliminary analysis on the effectiveness of a peer-to-peer feedback method to promote prompt feedback on students’ assignments. Traditionally, homework assignments and quizzes given to students in Electrical Engineering classes are graded a few days or weeks after submission. Although usually the graded works are returned (or are available for pick up), the majority of the students do not review their graded assignments and quizzes to self-correct and learn from their mistakes. Also, a very small group of students (~5%) may contact their instructor or TA to review their works. Among those, the majority are students concerned about their grades, not necessarily about learning and understanding the underlying concepts. Although in good teaching practice, the solution of the given assignment/quiz is posted to the class website shortly after the submission deadline, there is no effective method to find if the students have used the posted solutions for self-correction of their mistakes.

During the pandemic in the school year, 2020-2021, when classes were offered online or in hybrid mode, I developed a method for enhancing student engagement. Every single student in the class of ~40 had to meet (mandatory) the instructor weekly in small groups of 4-6 students on MicroSoft (MS) Teams (virtual meeting) for half an hour. In the meetings, the recently submitted student assignments were reviewed and graded by the instructor. The new method provided prompt feedback to every student. Using descriptive analysis, I find that the mean scores of students participating in the review sessions during the pandemic increased in comparison to those before the pandemic and no review session. and compared to pre-pandemic, the students’ grades improved. In order to continue to improve student learning, the instructor scheduled the mandatory MSTeams meetings for the students in Electronics I in the Fall 2021 semester when the course was offered as only in-class participation. I found that there still an increase in mean scores compared to before pandemic, but overall mean actually dropped compared to when the classes were just online. Further data collection and statistical analysis are required to fully understand the effect of this new method on the actual learning of the students. A hypothesis to be tested later is that the meetings had a complementary effect on the online teaching/learning but did not fit well with the student’s schedule when taking in-class courses.

Citation
Format

Takshi, A., & Ferekides, C. (2022, August), Work-in-Progress: Promoting Learning through a Prompt Feedback on Assignments and Quizzes in Peer-to-Peer Meetings with Students in Electronics I Course Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40399

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In this work-in-progress article, I present descriptive, preliminary analysis on the effectiveness of a peer-to-peer feedback method to promote prompt feedback on students’ assignments.  Traditionally, homework assignments and quizzes given to students in Electrical Engineering classes are graded a few days or weeks after submission. Although usually the graded works are returned (or are available for pick up), the majority of the students do not review their graded assignments and quizzes to self-correct and learn from their mistakes. Also, a very small group of students (~5%) may contact their instructor or TA to review their works. Among those, the majority are students concerned about their grades, not necessarily about learning and understanding the underlying concepts. Although in good teaching practice, the solution of the given assignment/quiz is posted to the class website shortly after the submission deadline, there is no effective method to find if the students have used the posted solutions for self-correction of their mistakes.  

During the pandemic in the school year, 2020-2021, when classes were offered online or in hybrid mode, I developed a method for enhancing student engagement.  Every single student in the class of ~40 had to meet (mandatory) the instructor weekly in small groups of 4-6 students on MicroSoft (MS) Teams (virtual meeting) for half an hour. In the meetings, the recently submitted student assignments were reviewed and graded by the instructor. The new method provided prompt feedback to every student. Using descriptive analysis, I find that the mean scores of students participating in the review sessions during the pandemic increased in comparison to those before the pandemic and no review session.  and compared to pre-pandemic, the students’ grades improved. In order to continue to improve student learning, the instructor scheduled the mandatory MSTeams meetings for the students in Electronics I in the Fall 2021 semester when the course was offered as only in-class participation. I found that there still an increase in mean scores compared to before pandemic, but overall mean actually dropped compared to when the classes were just online. Further data collection and statistical analysis are required to fully understand the effect of this new method on the actual learning of the students. A hypothesis to be tested later is that the meetings had a complementary effect on the online teaching/learning but did not fit well with the student’s schedule when taking in-class courses.


AU  - Arash Takshi
AU  - Chris Ferekides
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Work-in-Progress: Promoting Learning through a Prompt Feedback on Assignments and Quizzes in Peer-to-Peer Meetings with Students in Electronics I Course
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/40399
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--40399
ER  -