A Novel Real-time Feedback Tool to Enhance Learning and Teaching in Lecture Theatres
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Abstract
Lecturing is a standard teaching approach used in universities and is a vital part of a student's learning experience. In such a large environment, however, there are several obstacles for lecturers and students alike, which can limit effective teaching and learning. The lack of formative feedback from students to the lecturer could affect student attendance, attention and engagement attitudes; hence, student learning will be affected. The lecturer seeks students' feedback to shape the teaching, and students provide that feedback to enhance their learning. Student passivity and one-way didactic teaching contribute to keeping the feedback gap open. This research contributes to providing a novel solution to this problem through a staged approach using Design Science Research. There is a lack of an investigation that has examined the influence of formative feedback on patterns of attendance, attention, and engagement using a validated model. Such a study could guide technology developers in designing the technological interventions for such an environment; therefore this research has three main phases, the first phase examined the influence of providing this feedback on learning experience patterns. The results show that this feedback has a positive effect on attention and engagement, while there is no effect on students' attendance at lectures. Also, the investigation found that the use of lecture technologies has a positive effect on the students' attendance, attention and engagement. The second phase involved designing a novel feedback mechanism based on pushing feedback to the lecturer. A participatory study of a sample of students and lecturers using a think-aloud approach was carried out to collect impressions and suggestions relating to the mechanism's functionality. The results of the study revealed several proposals that were used to expand the design and development of the final lecture real-time feedback system (LRFS) artefact. The third phase evaluated the effectiveness of the intervention using a randomized controlled study where the tool was evaluated in three scenarios, using a user self-reported survey, interviews with students, a controlled observational study, user file analysis, interviews with lecturers and usability test for each scenario. The findings from the third phase revealed the positive effect of the novel mechanism in enhancing the learning of students and also enhancing teaching for lecturers in the lecture theatre environment.