THE EFFECT OF INTRODUCING ELECTRONIC STUDENT RESPONSE TECHNOLOGY ON CLASSROOM PARTICIPATION: TRENDS IN LONGITUDINAL DATA GATHERED WHILE TEACHING PHYSICAL GEOLOGY AT PENN STATE

Larry Lattman taught physical geology to > 37,000 students at Penn State during a period of about 12 years in the 1960s and early 1970s. The popularity of physical geology was in part due to Lattman’s brilliant classroom style and in part due to a university requirement that all students take a laboratory science class. By the 1980s the responsibility for teaching this class was split between two other faculty and competition from laboratory classes offered by other departments shrunk enrollment in physical geology to 800 to 900 students a year. By late 1990s the university requirement for a laboratory science was dropped and enrollment in physical geology then dwindled to less than 400 students a year. While the use of electronic student response technology (ESRT) over the past couple of years did not reverse this trend, there is clear evidence that the use of ESRT can affect student engagement in the classroom. The most easily quantified measure of student engagement is a higher rate of student attendance. The rate of attendance is largely a function of the reward structure where larger rewards draw more students. Students perceive that if > 15% of their final grade can be obtained through classroom attendance they will attend at a rate of > 90% (vs. 65% for no attendance reward). Peer pressure is also very effective in promoting attendance. Daily science Olympiads promote collaboration where team scores are awarded for either correct group answers or cumulative correct answers among teammates. Students seem to enjoy the group activities although it is difficult to create an environment where all the students collaborate on an equal basis. Assessment of learning as a consequence of the ESRT is more difficult. Preliminary results suggest that higher classroom attendance and in-class collaboration do not significantly affect test scores. There is even an indication that ‘forcing’ attendance up might have a negative impact on student rating of teacher effectiveness (SRTE). Then again, holding grades steady in physical geology during 12 years of rapid grade inflation at Penn State may also drive down SRTE scores.