Transcript The Personal Response System (PRS) at the University of Rochester

The Personal Response System (PRS) at the
University of Rochester
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Institute of Optics
December 15, 2005
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Outline.
• The PRS system.
• How did we get started and how are we doing?
• Examples of the use of the PRS system in Physics 121
(including a demo of the PRS system with actual questions
used in Physics 121).
• Issues with the PRS system from the instructor's point of
view.
• Summary.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
The Personal Response System (PRS).
• The personal response system
(PRS) was introduced in our large
lecture courses to increase the
involvement of the students in
these courses.
• Faculty can pose questions,
students submit their answers
using wireless transmitters, and
the data are collected using a set
of receivers connected to a
computer running the PRS
software which provides an
immediate analysis of the results.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
The Personal Response System.
The components.
• Each student uses a transmitter to
submit his/her answers.
• The answers can be
• Multiple-choice answers (up to 9
possible answers).
• Numerical answers (integers
only).
• Each student can indicate his/her
level of confidence by pressing
the H key (high confidence) or L
key
(low confidence) before
submitting their answer. The
default confident level is M
(medium confidence).
Frank L. H. Wolfs
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompress ed) dec ompres sor
are needed to s ee this pic ture.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
The Personal Response System.
The components.
• The signals from the transmitters
are received by several receivers.
• The signals are infra-red signals
and require line of sight.
• The required processing time
limits the number of users to
about 40 per receiver (many
receivers can be daisy chained).
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
• Note: the use of RF technology
would increase the cost by an
order to magnitude.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
The Personal Response System.
How did we get started?
• The impact of PRS is well established, but cost has been the
main reason not to adopt it.
• In October 2003 I attended an AAPT meeting about the
introductory Physics course curriculum, and found out that
Prentice Hall offered the possibility of bundling the PRS
units with their text book (the cost per book increased by
$15). In addition, for every 40 text books sold, I would
receive one receiver.
• Since we already use books from Prentice Hall in our
introductory physics courses, I decided to order the bundled
version for Physics 121 for spring 2004, and Prof. Manly
decided to do the same thing for Physics 114.
• I received 8 receivers from the PRS company at no charge.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
The Personal Response System.
How did we get started?
• In January 2004 four receivers were installed in Hoyt hall
and connected to the built-in PC.
• The system was used successfully in both Physics 121 and
Physics 114 during the spring semester of 2004 (more
details about the use in Physics 121 will be provided
momentarily).
• The success in these courses resulted in the interest of other
faculty in other courses. But …..
• The cost of the PRS transmitter for students who did not buy it
bundled was significant ($35 - $40 per unit).
• The tie to Prentice Hall to reduce the cost of the transmitters is not a
good thing.
• Is there a market for used transmitters?
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
The Personal Response System.
How do we continue?
• Usage of PRS for the fall semester, starting in fall 2004 (700
students):
•
•
•
•
•
Astronomy 102
Biology 110
Physics 113
Physics 122
Physics 141
• I made an arrangement with the bookstore to have them
purchase PRS transmitters. The students can rent the
transmitters at a cost of $10 (a $23 deposit is required).
• The PRS company delivered 16 receivers which were
installed in Dewey, Hubbell, and B&L 106. Note: facilities
completed the installation during the second week of classes
in fall 2004 only after I threatened to do it myself.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
The Personal Response System.
How do we continue?
• Everything seemed to be working fine.
• Some initial problems were caused by the use of csv files
and the fact that Microsoft messes these up when you try to
modify them using Excel.
• Many problems with managing class files were resolved in
recent versions of the PRS software (we started with 2.91
and are now using 3.20.0015).
• Documentation about the use of the PRS at the U of R can
be found at
http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/PRSatUofR/PRSInfo.html
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
The Personal Response System,
Examples of its use in Physics 121.
• In Physics 121 I have used the PRS in many different ways:
• Daily quizzes at the start of lecture (more details on the next slide).
• Surveys.
• Discussion provoking concept tests (more details on the next slide).
• Attendance.
• The PRS software collects information about information
send by each student.
But, if you give credit for
participation and/or quizzes, students need to know for sure
their answer was accepted.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Personal Response System
The questions
• The Physics 121 quizzes are used
to ensure that students read the
material to be covered in class
before coming to class.
• The Physics 121 concept tests are
used to focus on difficult
concepts in the material being
discussed
and
provides
immediate feedback on the
misconceptions of the students.
• Rather than reinventing the
wheel, most of the quizzes and
concept tests were taken from
”Peer Instruction” by Eric Mazur.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Personal Response System
Examples of its use in Physics 121.
• Quiz at the beginning of class
(based
on
the
reading
assignment):
• 3 - 4 multiple-choice questions.
• Part of the course grade.
• A group of people always leaves
right after the quiz. But …. I
know who they are!
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
The Personal Response System,
Examples of its use in Physics 121.
• Sorry, you will have to do some work.
• You will be asked to answer 4 concept-test questions that
have been used as Concept Tests in Physics 121.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Examples of PRS data.
Peer Instruction: Correct = Answer 3.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Examples of PRS data.
Peer Instruction: Correct = Answer 3.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Examples of PRS data.
Peer Instruction: Correct = Answer 5.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Examples of PRS data.
Peer Instruction: Correct = Answer 1.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
The Personal Response System,
Examples of its use in Physics 121.
• Since the PRS system records the ID # of the transmitters
being used by the students, I have good records of class
attendance, which my be a factor taken into consideration
when final grades are assigned.
• The attendance information also allows a study of the
correlation between lecture attendance and grades.
• But …… it requires you to collected PRS ID information
(there are different ways to collect this information).
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Usage of attendance.
Effect of attendance on pre-final course grade.
Physics 121 Attendance
90
Attendance (%)
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
5
15
25
35
45
55
65
75
85
Current Grade (%)
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Usage of attendance.
Is it workshops or lectures?
• Attendance information can be
used for other studies.
Lecture Attendance
35
30
25
Number of Students
• For example, students who go to
workshops are also more likely to
go to lecture. Do they get better
grades because of the workshop
or because they come to lecture?
20
WS
NO WS
15
10
5
• There is a lot of information
available ……. A lot to learn
from it.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Lecture Attendance (%)
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
What did the students think?
• In general the in-class concept test were received well. The
in-class discussion changed the class atmosphere ….. but the
instructor must be willing to change focus on a moments
notice based on the feedback from the students.
• Quizzes were not well received, but this is always true,
independent of the method of delivery. …… But, forcing
student to come to class lowers your course opinion ratings!
• Main initial complaints came from students who purchased
the PRS transmitters separately (expensive) but having the
bookstore deal with the transmitters has resolved most
problems.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Impact on Faculty's Workload.
• The success of the system depends on the quality of the
questions being used. Developing good questions requires a
significant effort.
• The Faculty can setup the PRS session in advance (this is
highly recommended) on their computer (Windows or Mac
OS X) and transfer files to a USB keychain storage device.
Note:
• You will need to determine how you will display the questions:
include them in the PRS system (OK, but graphics causes problems
on windows machines - bug when path changes) or display them on
an overhead projector.
• Decide how much time you will give the students to think, whether or
not you want to see the graph with the results automatically, etc.
• You will need to make sure you collect PRS ID numbers if you are
going to give credit for participation.
• Run the PRS system from the USB device connected to the machine
running the PRS software.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Impact on Faculty's Workload.
• Biggest initial stumbling blocks (all related to those
applications where students receive credit for participation):
• Collect PRD ID information for students enrolled in the course. In
Physics we collect this information as part of the recitation signup
process. There is a WEB-based tool, provided by GTCO CalComp,
that collects this information and I plan to evaluate this tool in the
next few weeks.
• Class list:
// Roster, Date&Time: 407292204, Version: 3.00.0025, CID: 5y?YGCCF, OS: Windows XP Version
5.1, Class Name: NOT USED zs: 0 dups: 0,,
TransId, Group Id, Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial, Student ID, Nickname, Net ID
152904,0,Baker,Kim,-,444-33-2222,KB,152990,0,Smith,Fred,-,505123,FedX,152985,0,Dickenson,Emily,M,345-22-2345,Poet,154110,0,Tucker,Christopher,-,T01-43879,Chris,-
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Impact on Faculty's Workload.
• Problems identified in the current version of the software:
• Use of graphics in the the PRS questions (when the path of the
graphics folder changes, the graphics will not show up ….. it looks
like the software uses absolute paths instead of relative paths).
• There are bugs with the grade book feature (I will see if they are
resolved in the latest version of the software). In my Physics 141
class, the first student is not included.
• The inability to show two graphs at the same time (in the current
version) is a step backwards in my opinion.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Impact on Faculty's Workload.
• Let's demonstrate some of the "faculty" features:
• Defining a class.
• Defining a seat map.
• Defining a lesson.
• Grading a quiz.
• Updating a grade book.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester
Summary
• The use of PRS has been successfully introduced at the U of
R.
• The simulating discussions that evolve as a result of the PRS
system are a result of the questions being used. These
discussions can take place in the recitation environment
without having to rely on PRS hardware/software.
• Anything that will increase the involvement of the students
in lecture/recitation/workshop will increase their impact.
Frank L. H. Wolfs
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester