Supporting Peer Engagement Utilizing the Peer Instruction Xblock
Derek White, Senior Manager, UBC
Pan Luo, Developer, UBC
OpenEdX 2016, Stanford University
Agenda
How it works
Step 2
Read some other students’ answers and explanations
Student #1:
Option B
“Reasons for option B”
Student #2:
Option C
“Reasons for option C”
Student #3:
Option A
“Reasons for option A”
Step 4
See the correct answer/explanation & class breakdown
Correct Answer:
Option A
“Correct reasons for
option B”
Initial Final
Answers Answers
A B C A B C
Step 1
Choose an answer option & explain why it is correct
What is your answer
to this question?
Option A
Option B
Option C
Explain why:
Here is why I think
this option is best.
Step 3
Reconsider your original answer & optionally revise it
What is your answer
to this question?
Option A
Option B
Option C
Explain why:
Here is why I think
this option is better.
Underlying Theory and Practice
Smith, M. K., Wood, W. B., Adams, W. K., Wieman, C., Knight, J. K., Guild, N., & Su, T. T. (2009). Why Peer Discussion Improves Student Performance on In-Class Concept Questions. Science, 323(5910), 122-124. doi:10.1126/science.1165919
http://mazur.harvard.edu/research/detailspage.php?rowid=8
Why Peer Instruction?
UBC Context: Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative
The goal of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative is to achieve highly effective, evidence-based science education for all post-secondary students by applying the latest advances in pedagogical and organizational excellence.
→ 170 transformed courses
The MOOC challenge:
Why Peer Instruction?
edX Global Forum 2014 - Instructional Design and Pedagogy Group
“Can we take an example pedagogy that we know works *really* well in the f-2-f environment and recreate it in a fully online environment?”
→ Online Peer Instruction utilizing student answer
rationales as proxy for student discussion.
Live Demo
Key Features
Events
{
...
"username": "USERNAME", -- common field
"event_source": "server/browser", -- common field
"name": "ubc.peer_instruction.original_submitted",
"context": {
"user_id": ####, -- common field
"org_id": "", -- common field
"course_id": "", -- common field
"path": "", -- common field,
"module": {
"display_name": "Peer Instruction Question 1",
}
},
"referer": "", -- common field
"event": {
"answer": "1", -- An integer
"rationale": "This is the rationale", -- string field
"truncated": False, -- boolean field,
},
"event_type": "ubc.peer_instruction.original_submitted",
"page": null
}
Development Process
Experiences and Feedbacks
Experiences and Feedbacks
Main reasons answers were helpful
Legitimized Alternatives:
"[Answers] provided other options that you might have overlooked", "it made me think would [another answer] work?"
Provided Guidance:
“[Answers] guided you in a direction", "now I see what I'm supposed to look at", "it helped me target my attention to specific clues".
Second Thoughts:
"It made me stop and be more careful, to question myself"
Increased Confidence:
“[Other answers] helped me feel like I was assured with my choice", "confirmed to me my answer was correct"
Reasons students gave for liking the exercise
"Other students' insight could provide a different perspective"
"When we're not sure about our choice, we can see other answers" these can help you "get to the correct way to approach the question"
There’s value when you can "see the reasoning in the [other] answers instead of just the correct answer . [It] gives me an idea how to formulate my answers"
"Just to have other student opinions is good" in any assignment.
Evaluation Process
Evaluation of two PI tools: UBCPI and Dalite
Evaluation Process
Development Roadmap
Development Team
Derek White
Pan Luo
Letitia Englund
Richard Tape
Bill Pichard
William Ono
John Hsu
Michael Tang
Special thanks to Open Edx team for the help, code review and contribution!
We’d like to hear from you
Derek White: derek.white@ubc.ca
Pan Luo: pan.luo@ubc.ca