Evaluation and assessment in the classroom: Evaluating the impact of an electronic voting system in the classroom

Abstract

It can often be difficult to know whether an educational intervention is effective. Anecdotal evidence may be enough to convince some, but there is often a need to collate this information into a more coherent and persuasive whole and support it with other information such as survey results from the users of the intervention. The lack of randomised, controlled trials need not render an evaluation valueless, as long as the limitations of the evaluation are understood. This report details the experience of evaluating five years use of an electronic voting system (EVS); a system which has the potential for increasing interactivity with the audience and improving learning outcomes. Various educational strategies used in this five year period are discussed, supported by survey results and formal observations. This evaluation provides evidence that when the EVS was used in a case-based learning environment, with the lecturer allowing discussion immediately before seeking opinions through electronic voting, the interactions within the class were increased. Students believed that the EVS was easy to use and created a teaching environment more enjoyable than a conventional tutorial. The results of the evaluation, whilst not as rigorous as a randomised, controlled trial provide evidence that other lecturers could use these types of strategies in their teaching to enhance student learning.