Nguyen, Thinh B (2010) Increasing Student Engagement and Attention through Pre-Reading. International Conference on Engineering Education ICEE-2010. pp. 1-6. ISSN 1562-3580

Abstract

This paper presents the experience of introducing the requirement of pre-reading into the Photonics course in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering program at Victoria University. The teaching of this course was changed to problem-based learning (PBL) mode in 2009. In order to accommodate for the extra hours working on projects, but still ensure that the course content was not reduced, the lectures were undertaken using Just-in-Time-Teaching mode and students were required to pre-read course materials before attending each lecture. Students were tested using online assessments prior to each class. These on-line tests contributed to their overall assessment. These tests provided immediate feedback on what the students did or not understand. This information became the basis for discussions in the class thereby focusing class time on areas in the course content that required most attention. Thus the lectures and class discussions are driven directly by the students. Students who understood the teaching material and received satisfactory marks in on-line assessment were not required to attend lectures, affording them more time to spend on their projects. However, attendance rates continue to be high though-out the semester as students responded well to this mode of teaching.

Search Google Scholar

Repository staff login