Technology to enhance in-class discussions and student participation at a multi-campus program

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implementation of a novel approach to using technology in a class taught from a satellite campus via synchronous video teleconferencing and its impact on student participation.

A wiki platform was blended with an audience response system and implemented during a one-hour class period. Students provided answers to open-ended discussion questions on the audience-response wiki page. The instructor read responses aloud as they were added, and provided explanation and immediate feedback on each response.

There were 136 second year student pharmacists enrolled in the class, and 41 (30.15%) students contributed to the audience response wiki during the in-class discussion. The combined four discussion questions had a total of 86 responses, which indicates that some students participated more than once. There are five accepted types of student interaction in distance education, and the audience-response wiki addressed each of them. Additionally, it addressed many barriers to in-class discussion for students on a distance campus including microphone anxiety and fear of interrupting a peer on another campus. Beyond enhanced student participation, it allowed the instructor to provide immediate feedback on a higher volume of student responses.

Audience response wiki tools are free, easy to use, and allow students across multiple campuses to overcome barriers associated in-class discussion.