One way to get students engaged in learning is by getting them to self-test and generate their own questions.
Goal: To enhance learning that occurs in passive lectures by engaging students in question-generation.
Background:
The instructor created a website called AskUp.net that allowed students to generate and share questions based on class material, homework assignments, readings, videos, etc. During the activity, students registered onto the website, generated questions, and tagged them with the subject of the question.
Procedure:
- The instructor asked students to generate question and answer sets based on lecture material presented.
- After each class lecture, students were asked to generate a question and answer set using AskUp.net. Students were then able to read other learner's questions, and quiz themselves on those questions.
- Students tested themselves on questions generated by other students.
- Students create a home-grown question bank, which they could review prior to exams. They could rate each other's questions. Questions that are rated highly are shown first. Students would receive points for generating questions, and got additional points if questions were well-liked by their classmates.
Comments:
The instructor shared several benefits regarding this activity method:
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Research has demonstrated significant benefits of practice testing (self-testing or taking practice tests). Having learners generate their own questions and answers is a highly efficient method of learning and results in
- increased comprehension of material
- improved thought complexity, initiative, and engagement with the material
- higher-ordered questions
- increased conceptual reasoning and problem solving abilities
- long-term retention as learners have to retrieve information from memory
The instructor also advises to employ Bloom's taxonomy. For instance, questions asked can be assessed through the framework of “REMEMBERING, UNDERSTANDING, APPLYING, ANALYZING, EVALUATING, and CREATING”.
Submitted by Jonathan Hausmann, Elliott Yates, Sarah Schachman, Katherine Loboda, Liza McPherson, Hana Kim, Raymond Kim, JN Fang, Rich Schwartzstein; Department of Rheumatology
learning_styles_physiology_poster_copy.pdf | 435 KB | |
askup_activity_2.pdf | 31 KB | |
ask_up_activity.pdf | 38 KB |