Quantitative Evaluation of Student Response Systems in Lecture Hall Oceanography Classes

Student Response System technology (SRS) has been employed in large, lecture-style classrooms since the 1960s. Published research demonstrates that these systems have positive effects on class attendance and student attitudes towards learning. However, research concerning the quantitative effects of SRS on learning curves is sparse and often limited by underdeveloped experimental methodology. In order to address this gap in the knowledge, we are conducting a semester long, pre-test/post test experiment designed to measure the effects of SRS on department established educational goals in an Introduction to Oceanography curriculum.

We have constructed a database of previously administered, objective-style assessment items and evaluated the validity and reliability of each item using the principles of classical test theory. These questions have been distributed between in-class SRS use and class examinations in three groups: the identical item group, the similar item group, and the control group. The Identical item group questions appear in the same form in both SRS and examination assessements. The similar items group has different questions from the same content domain distributed between the SRS and the class examination. The control group consists of questions only on the class examinations. A pre-test questionnaire will be used to measure a baseline learning curve for the experimental population of ~250 students. Data derived from the pretest questionnaire, SRS questions, and class examinations will be used to measure the effects of SRS on a variety of normative and criterion referenced learning outcomes.