Assessing the Effects of Implementing an Online Student-Response System in a Transportation Engineering Course

Abstract

Online student-response systems utilize the Internet connectivity of the smart devices owned by university students to enable the instructor to post different types of questions that can be instantly answered by students using their smart devices. This paper provides a quantitative assessment of the effects of using online student-response systems for training and monitoring the academic performance of students taking a high-level engineering technical course. By using the system for training, the instructor was able to receive real-time feedback from students so that the instructor would revisit and clarify the areas that were still unclear to students. The system was also used to provide several in-class quizzes that were used to determine the class participation marks for students. This allowed the instructor to consistently assess all students in the class because all students were required to answer the same questions at the same time. This is unlike traditional pedagogical methods in which class participation marks were assigned based on fewer questions for every individual student. Due to these factors, it was found that using online student-response systems for training and assessment has led to improving students’ marks and attendance rates. Furthermore, implementing the system has also led to significant improvements in the students’ level of achieving different performance indicators related to the course.

Keywords: Student Response, Transportation, Training, Assessment