First year physics students Wookyeung Joe and Rebecca Beasley have got their fingers on the buzzers as part of the Unlecture Project.
So what is it that’s got students in first year Physics so excited?
The answer is an experimental and original program – the Unlecture Project - that gives the students an interactive lecture environment with groups given electronic keypads where they register their answers to multiple choice questions posed by the lecturer.
The project is the work of College of Science lecturers Dr Craig Savage and Dr Paul Francis. It’s based on the American ‘Scale-Up’ system that encourages interactive learning and has produced great results in student learning, retention of information and encouraging further learning.
Three times a week, 270 students undertaking first year physics gather in the lecture theatre. They are divided into groups of three, given a ‘clicker’ – a small electronic device where they can register their answers – and questions are posed on the big screen at the front of the theatre.
“The big-screen timer starts ticking down as soon as I pose the question,” said Dr Francis. “They have anywhere between three and ten minutes to answer the question and have to work together as a group. In the USA this has been proven to dramatically improve how much students learn – the drop-out rate goes down by a factor of between three and five, students learn more and continue to do well in further education. We did a poll here of students and found that 85 per cent think it’s better than normal lectures – it makes the learning fun and they like coming to it.”
Although the environment may be fun, the quality of the course remains unaltered, said Dr Francis. “We’re teaching the same syllabus at the same rate and it’s still hard work. But it makes the subject more interesting and has real potential for other (teaching) areas,” he said.
Posted 10 April 2008
Undergraduate