Peer+: A Tool to Support Peer Instruction in Interactive Ebooks
Pages 48 - 49
Abstract
Decades of research have provided evidence of the effectiveness of Peer Instruction (PI) in many fields, including computing. PI involves an instructor displaying a hard multiple-choice question that students answer individually, then discuss with peers and answer again. The instructor then displays the results from the two votes and leads a discussion.
Peer Instruction was originally developed by Eric Mazur to improve student understanding in physics [2]. In computer science, PI has substantially reduced failure rates [4], improved retention [5], and increased final exam performance [6]. This is true for both introductory computing courses [1] and advanced computing courses [3].
There has not been prior research to the best of our knowledge on using a chat interface for PI nor on support for students to answer questions asynchronously after the lecture, yet still "discussing" with others. Therefore, we investigate the effect of Peer+, a new tool that we added to the open-source Runestone ebook platform. We examine the effects of two new types of PI interfaces 1) a synchronous chat interface that maximizes the number of groups with members who have different answers and 2) an asynchronous interface that allows students to answer PI questions after lecture. Findings from this work will contribute to helping instructors implement PI more easily and improving PI efficacy.
This poster presents some initial findings from 8 semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students. They used Peer+ throughout an introductory data science course. They used both traditional in-person discussions and the synchronous interface during lecture PI activities. They used asynchronous interface if they did not attend the lecture.
The interviews were designed to explore the effects of traditional in-person discussion versus Peer+ synchronous and asynchronous chat discussion on learning and student satisfaction. They lasted 1 hour each and were inductively analyzed. Most students reported that they found the synchronous chat to be more engaging and effective in helping them understand the material than the asynchronous interface. They appreciated the opportunity to interact with their peers in real-time and found that the discussions helped them to better grasp the concepts. They also reported that the synchronous chat helped to keep them accountable and motivated to participate in the discussions.
A few students, however, reported that they found the asynchronous mode to be more convenient and flexible, as it allowed them to participate in the discussions at their own pace and on their own schedule. Some students also mentioned that they found it helpful to use both types, as they appreciate both synchronous interactions and asynchronous interfaces to review the material in depth. The interviews thus highlighted the importance of providing multiple modes of instruction to accommodate different schedules.
We also researched student’s medium term retention of learning by using Peer+ and instructor’s experiences and attitudes towards implementing PI. We hope the insights from our research can be used to improve the implementation of PI in the future and enhance the overall learning experience for students in computing courses.
References
[1]
Dennis Bouvier, Ellie Lovellette, John Matta, Jing Bai, Jacqueline Chetty, Stan Kurkovsky, and Jia Wan. 2019. Factors Affecting the Adoption of Peer Instruction in Computing Courses. In Proceedings of the Working Group Reports on Global Computing Education. 1–25.
[2]
Catherine H Crouch and Eric Mazur. 2001. Peer instruction: Ten years of experience and results. American journal of physics 69, 9 (2001), 970–977.
[3]
Cynthia Bailey Lee, Saturnino Garcia, and Leo Porter. 2013. Can peer instruction be effective in upper-division computer science courses?ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE) 13, 3 (2013), 1–22.
[4]
Leo Porter, Cynthia Bailey Lee, and Beth Simon. 2013. Halving fail rates using peer instruction: a study of four computer science courses. In Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education. 177–182.
[5]
Leo Porter and Beth Simon. 2013. Retaining nearly one-third more majors with a trio of instructional best practices in CS1. In Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education. 165–170.
[6]
Beth Simon, Julian Parris, and Jaime Spacco. 2013. How we teach impacts student learning: peer instruction vs. lecture in CS0. In Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education. 41–46.
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Published In
August 2023
140 pages
ISBN:9781450399753
DOI:10.1145/3568812
Copyright © 2023 Owner/Author.
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Published: 13 September 2023
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