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An open-access clicker question bank for numerical analysis

M. Alamgir Hossain, Petra M. Menz, John M. Stockie

Abstract

We present a question bank consisting of over 250 multiple-choice and true-false questions covering a broad range of material typically taught in an introductory undergraduate course in numerical analysis or scientific computing. The questions are ideal for polling students during lectures by means of a student response system that uses clicker remotes or smartphones running a suitable app. We describe our experiences implementing these clicker questions in a recent class and provide evidence of their effectiveness in terms of testing students' prior knowledge, gauging understanding of new material, increasing participation, and especially improving student satisfaction. Our conclusions are supported by a mid-semester student survey as well as anecdotal observations. The question bank has been released as an open-access educational resource under a Creative Commons license (BY-NC-SA) for free use by the mathematics community.

An open-access clicker question bank for numerical analysis

Abstract

We present a question bank consisting of over 250 multiple-choice and true-false questions covering a broad range of material typically taught in an introductory undergraduate course in numerical analysis or scientific computing. The questions are ideal for polling students during lectures by means of a student response system that uses clicker remotes or smartphones running a suitable app. We describe our experiences implementing these clicker questions in a recent class and provide evidence of their effectiveness in terms of testing students' prior knowledge, gauging understanding of new material, increasing participation, and especially improving student satisfaction. Our conclusions are supported by a mid-semester student survey as well as anecdotal observations. The question bank has been released as an open-access educational resource under a Creative Commons license (BY-NC-SA) for free use by the mathematics community.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 14 sections, 3 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Review of Clicker Resources: The Numerical Analysis Gap
  3. Aims and Outline
  4. Course Overview
  5. Student Demographics
  6. Grading Scheme
  7. Structure of the Clicker Question Bank
  8. Mechanics of In-Class Clicker Polling
  9. Unexpected Switch to On-line Instruction
  10. Student Satisfaction Survey Results
  11. Free-form Comments
  12. Anecdotal Observations
  13. Closing remarks
  14. Student Survey Data

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Formatted output from clickerQbank.pdf for a sample multiple-choice clicker question having 4 choices, typeset using the macro \\qitemMCfour.
  • Figure 1: (Left) Two versions of the iClicker radio-frequency remote. (Middle) iClicker RF base station. (Right) Laptop and smartphone running the iClicker REEF app through a Wi-Fi connection. Source: http://www.iclicker.com.
  • Figure 2: Beamer slides from clickerbeamer.pdf for the same multiple-choice question in \ref{['fig:qexample1']}.