Technology to enhance in-class discussions and student participation at a multi-campus program

Abstract

Background and purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implementation of a novel approach to using technology in a class taught from a satellite campus via synchronous video teleconferencing and its impact on student participation.

Educational activity and setting: A wiki platform was blended with an audience response system and implemented during a one-hour class period. Students provided answers to open-ended discussion questions on the audience-response wiki page. The instructor read responses aloud as they were added, and provided explanation and immediate feedback on each response.

Findings: There were 136 second year student pharmacists enrolled in the class, and 41 (30.15%) students contributed to the audience response wiki during the in-class discussion. The combined four discussion questions had a total of 86 responses, which indicates that some students participated more than once. There are five accepted types of student interaction in distance education, and the audience-response wiki addressed each of them. Additionally, it addressed many barriers to in-class discussion for students on a distance campus including microphone anxiety and fear of interrupting a peer on another campus. Beyond enhanced student participation, it allowed the instructor to provide immediate feedback on a higher volume of student responses.

Summary: Audience response wiki tools are free, easy to use, and allow students across multiple campuses to overcome barriers associated in-class discussion.

Keywords: Distance learning; Multi-campus; Participation; Satellite campus; Student engagement; Technology.