Engaging Students Using a Simple Electronic Daily Response Journal David A. Reimann Albion College Albion, Michigan Copyright 2000 ©, David A. Reimann.

Engaging Students Using a Simple Electronic Daily Response Journal

David A. Reimann

Albion College

Albion, Michigan

Copyright 2000 ©, David A. Reimann. All rights seserved

Goals

• Improve student learning

• Simplify paperwork

• Encourage attendance

• Give students ownership of their learning

• Engage passive students

• Engage reflective students

Problems• Some introverted students feel uncomfortable

asking questions• Some students are afraid of asking “dumb

questions”• Reflective students need time to digest

material• Students miss classes for a variety of reasons

(athletics, music, special events, etc)• Student attendance does not insure learning

Previous Solutions

• Written journals

• Email

• Bulletin Boards

Written Journals• Activity

– Summarize course material– Reflect and question course concepts

• Benefits– Improve student learning– Improve thinking– Improve motivation– Low stakes writing– Provides time for reflection

Written Journals

• Problems– Delay in providing feedback– Journals can be in only one place at a time– Time demand for reviewing journals– Time of instructor in administrative aspects– No guarantee of daily writing unless processed

daily

Email

• Activity– Students send instructor an email

• Problems– Difficult to process automatically– Can overwhelm an already busy mailbox

Bulletin Boards

• Activity– Students post journal to a bulletin board

• Advantages– No email clutter

• Problems– Lack of anonymity– Logistics

New Solution• Electronic daily response journal using a web-

based form• Process

– A student submits a daily response containing two important points from class and one unresolved question

– A related URL can be submitted for extra credit– Student name is selected from a course specific web

form– No password currently required

New Solution

• Advantages– No email clutter– No simultaneous location problems– Friendly reminder– Anonymous review for other students– Provides rapid feedback– Gives shy and reflective people a voice– The required question should foster inquiry

New Solution• Behind the scenes

– A CGI script on a Linux-based web server handles submissions

– A check is made to ensure fields contain something other than white space

– Some submitted non-questions are disallowed

– Proper submissions are sent to a file

– At 6 PM on class days, a reminder is automatically sent if no response has been received

– Each class morning, the submission file is processed to extract the recent entries

Use in Courses

• Questions are reviewed at the beginning of class (5-10 minutes)

• Provides a review of the difficult concepts of the previous class

• Provides a nice transition between classes

• Students see peer comments and questions

Selected Responses from CS1

• Important points– Decimal, base10, uses numbers from 0 through 9

– Computer programmers see Oct 31 and Dec 25 as the same

– Computers are smart. Very smart.

• Unresolved questions– How frequently is octal used in place of hexadecimal or

binary?

– Why does the hexadecimal base use letters?

– Do you think the robot team will be able to beat the world cup champs in 2050?

Survey

• A group of 29 students was polled– Five possible responses to each statement were

given– Responses were coded as integers (-2 to 2)– Histograms, means, and medians were computed

• Includes CS1, CS2, and Graphics

The daily response has improved my writing ability.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

mb

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of

Res

po

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The daily response has helped clarify course concepts.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

mb

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of

Res

po

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es

The daily response has stimulated my thinking about this course

outside the classroom.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

mb

er

of

Res

po

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The daily response has increased my motivation.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

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of

Res

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The daily response has improved my attendance.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

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of

Res

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The daily response has made asking questions easier.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

mb

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of

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es

The daily response has given me a voice in class.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

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of

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The daily response has fostered an inquisitive attitude.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

mb

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of

Res

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The daily response has facilitated classroom discussion.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

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er o

f R

esp

on

ses

The daily response has improved feedback on difficult concepts.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

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f R

esp

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The daily response has made me less passive in the classroom.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

mb

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of

Res

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es

The daily response has improved my note taking skills.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

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of

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es

The daily response has made me a better learner.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

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of

Res

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es

The email reminder has been helpful to me.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

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I wish the daily response was used in all my classes.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

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Overall, the daily response is a good thing in this course.

0

5

10

15

20

25

StronglyDisagree

Disagree Neutral Agree StronglyAgree

Response

Nu

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Student Feedback

• Complaints– One student “hates” journals– Some students feel peer students can get credit

for not coming to class– Some students felt like they were not rewarded

for coming to class if they forgot to do the response

• Positives– Some students liked the chance to reflect

Observations

• Class time is required– Similar to in-class journal writing– Similar to a simple review of previous class

• Grading requires roughly 30 minutes for a class of 20 students every other week

• Log of class is helpful in future course improvements

Future Work

• Ongoing

• Future questions– Is there a correlation with gender?– Are other student questions helpful?– Did it improve student learning?– How much time was required?

• Grouping similar responses

Conclusions

• A simple electronic daily response journal was analyzed

• Logistical advantages over paper journals• Similar benefit to students

– Quick response time– Improved clarification and feedback– Facilitated classroom discussion– Made asking questions easier

• Works well for 10-20 students

Acknowledgements

• Thanks to all my students for participating in this project.

• Thank you!