2014 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Immediate Feedback And The Use Of Polling Systems For EFL Instruction
| Project/Area Number |
26370665
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| Research Institution | University of the Ryukyus |
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Principal Investigator |
マクレイン ジョージロバート 琉球大学, 学内共同利用施設等, 教授 (90400613)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
FEWELL Norman 名桜大学, 国際学部, 准教授 (20577994)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
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| Keywords | Immediate feedback / electronic polling / ICT enhanced interaction / peer evaluation / self evaluation / learner centered / cloud computing |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
This research is evaluating immediate feedback provided to students using electronic polling and other feedback software in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms. To date we have deployed dedicated devices (clickers) as well as software that students can use on their own smartphones. We also acquired thirty Chromebooks.
The systems we are using allow smart mobile phones as well as dedicated devices (‘clickers’) to transmit information to a notebook computer via a USB hub, as well as to the cloud, in this case Google Drive. With these systems every student is able to respond to each question. Student responses are being saved as Excel or Google Sheets files, amalgamated, and immediately displayed. Our research is examining and reporting on the impact of these systems in terms of students’ abilities to use such systems, their reactions to the systems, and ultimately whether there is any improvement in their performance.
Our research activities have also included disseminating findings via workshops, research presentations, and publications in proceedings and journals (see below).
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Originally we planned to use eInstruction’s Flow polling software, a cloud computing based system. We obtained the software and trialed it on Widows 7 systems as well as Apple OS X. In both cases the system was unstable and ultimately we decided to abandon use of Flow, due to design flaws and a lack of service from the maker.
Tablets and smartphones are useful for some tasks, but they have proved problematic where larger amounts of text input is desirable. We therefore acquired Chromebooks in the spring of 2014, and they are much more effective because they have keyboards.
An additional problem to date was sufficient bandwidth to accommodate large classes where students required Internet access to successfully use the software for this study. Towards that end, the Foreign Language Center at the University of the Ryukyus installed high speed Internet in four classrooms in the spring of 2015.
We have prepared a study on this that compares students’ self-evaluations, peer evaluations, evaluations from four graduate students, as well as four professors. Initial results suggest that (1) peer and self evaluation promote a better classroom culture that fosters learner autonomy, (2) students are amenable to such forms of evaluation; (3) peer evaluation is consistent with teacher evaluation; (4) students’ self evaluation is lower than that of their teachers and their peers. At present, we are using Chromebooks. This initially caused some delay, we are optimistic that they will soon be more efficient than the equipment and software we originally anticipated using.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Abandoning the use of Flow will improve the relevance of this study for a larger group of researchers and students. Instead of expensive, dedicated devices and software, we have adapted tools for this project that are more generally available, such as the Google Suite for Education i.e. Google Forms, Documents, Sheets, and Slides, Socrative polling applications, Flubaroo and similar tools. This will result in broader interest and dissemination of research findings.
The Chromebooks acquired by this project appear to be effective for the goals of the study and will actually enhance the quality of data we can obtain. Notably, Chromebooks have keyboards so students will be able to generate more writing and which can be displayed on all their devices simultaneously and is available for immediate feedback.
We have created and vetted numerous teaching materials for the purposes of this study. We will continue to give workshops and research presentations about our findings. Workshops in particular have been well attended and much positive feedback has been received.
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| Causes of Carryover |
We will also acquire further hardware, such as more Chromebooks and software for the delivery and analysis of data.
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| Expenditure Plan for Carryover Budget |
We intend to travel to at least three large international conferences each year for the duration of this study, as well as national and local events.
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