Classroom Experiments for Large Lecture Courses: A Wireless Solution

经济学(82)选修大型讲授入门课程的经济学学生很少有机会与课程内容互动。正因为如此，他们没有对材料有深入的理解，也没有能力分析和解释复杂的经济事件。课堂实验已被证明有助于帮助学生理解材料。在过去，这些练习在大型课程中是不切实际的。该项目正在开发无线课堂技术，使大班学生能够在上课时间参与课堂实验。我们已经组建了一个跨学科的小组，该小组正在创建一种学习系统，使在大班中实现课堂实验的好处成为可能。我们的愿景是由标准的电子手持设备(如PDA)组成的可移植系统，这些设备可以与笔记本电脑通信，笔记本电脑将组织经济模拟，如市场、公共产品环境和经济游戏。虽然其他研究人员目前正在研究基于互联网的实验，但除非学生异步完成练习，否则这样的系统不会转化为大班级。对于学生提出的问题或建议，教练修改游戏的能力非常有限。评估是本项目的关键组成部分。我们设计了一个对照实验来收集一个大型讲座的成绩数据。我们正在评估这种无线系统能在多大程度上改善学生的成绩并降低成本。

Economics (82)Economics students enrolled in large lecture-based introductory courses rarely have theopportunity to interact with course content. Because of this they do not gain a deepunderstanding of the material or the ability to analyze and interpret complex economicevents. Classroom experiments have been shown to be useful in aiding studentunderstanding of the material. In the past these exercises have been impractical in largecourses. This project is developing wireless classroom technology to allow students inlarge classes to participate in classroom experiments during the class meeting times. Wehave assembled a cross-disciplinary group that is creating a learning system that is making it possible to realize the benefits of classroom experiments in large classes. Our vision is of aportable system composed of standard electronic handheld devices (such as PDAs) thatcommunicate with a laptop computer that will organize economics simulations such asmarkets, public goods environments and economic games. While other researchers arecurrently working on internet-based experiments, such systems do not translate to largeclasses unless students complete the exercise asynchronously. The instructor has onlyvery limited ability to revise the game in response to student questions or suggestions.Evaluation is a critical component of this project. We have designed a controlledexperiment to collect data on performance in a large lecture course. We are evaluatingto what extent this wireless system can improve student outcomes and reduce costs.