Benefits of an Audience Response System based on Polls with Mobile Phones in Engineering Education

L. Mediero, A. Lastra, A. Lastra, J. Palacios

2021

Abstract

Traditional teaching techniques based on either chalk and board or PowerPoint are usual in civil engineering schools, fostering a passive behaviour in students. Active learning techniques based on audience response systems can overcome such passivity. Currently, most undergraduates and postgraduates own a smartphone. Therefore, lectures based on polls with smartphones can help to improve student learning. This study presents the benefits of a lecture based on an audience response system compared with a traditional teaching technique. A poll related to smartphone-use was applied to a lecture in hydraulics delivered in a civil engineering school to solve a complex open-channel flow problem. The results showed that student learning and understanding about the procedure to perform the exercise correctly improved highly by means of active learning activity. The number of students that failed a similar exercise after the class halved because of the mobile-based poll. In addition, the student satisfaction survey highlighted that the activity led to a more active class. The survey also found that most of the students felt that the activity is interesting and useful to understand how to address such exercises.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Mediero L., Lastra A. and Palacios J. (2021). Benefits of an Audience Response System based on Polls with Mobile Phones in Engineering Education. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-502-9, pages 307-314. DOI: 10.5220/0010433403070314

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu21,
author={L. Mediero and A. Lastra and J. Palacios},
title={Benefits of an Audience Response System based on Polls with Mobile Phones in Engineering Education},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,},
year={2021},
pages={307-314},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0010433403070314},
isbn={978-989-758-502-9},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,
TI - Benefits of an Audience Response System based on Polls with Mobile Phones in Engineering Education
SN - 978-989-758-502-9
AU - Mediero L.
AU - Lastra A.
AU - Palacios J.
PY - 2021
SP - 307
EP - 314
DO - 10.5220/0010433403070314