

Studying for the Test by Taking It - danso
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/sunday-review/studying-for-the-test-by-taking-it.html

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danieltillett
When I was a professor I introduced a similar idea. What I did is put up a
series is small online quizzes (three questions only) that had to be answered
before each lecture block. The answers were in the lecture notes so all the
student had to do was read through the lecture notes before class. The idea
was by making the students aware of the content before the lecture I could
reduce novelty overload and stop the student's brain switching off in class.

It worked realy well and I was able to increase the average mark in the final
exam by 10% points without having any significant impact on the student
reviews of the course - introducing lots of testing through the subject is a
no-no for students as it does impact on their drinking time. If you prevent
them partying they take it out on you in the performance reviews. This
approach was a stealth way of improving performance.

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faitswulff
The engineering physics courses at the University of Illinois have had "pre-
flight" quizzes like this for years. It definitely encouraged me to do the
readings and understand the material before attending lecture.

I wonder if they might have been made more effective by "interleaving"
different topics like the article suggests, as opposed to just quizzing
students on the topic of the day's lecture.

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danieltillett
This works really well with improving the student's understanding of the
subject, but it comes at the expense of pulling down your performance review
as a professor - students just don't like having to do (any) work and will
punish any lecturer who pushes them to perform to their ability.

I had to maintain a score of above 3.5 out of 5. I would push the students as
hard as I could and just keep my score above that level (my aim was 3.6 to
3.7). The constant complaint of my students was the high workload, but since I
was trying to optimise for their learning rather than my own promotion, I was
able to pack more into one subject than would fit in two of my colleagues
subjects.

