The Student Response System. A 5-year Mayo Medical School Experience

The Student Response System is a commercially available electronic communication system applicable to many teaching and testing situations. At rather short intervals during a programmed course, the instructor projects on a screen multiple-choice questions that the student should have learned to answer during one or two previous teaching steps. Correct and incorrect responses are indicated on a panel on the desk of the instructor. If students fail to give the correct answer, the teaching step is repeated. Recurrent incorrect answers indicate that explanations had been inappropriate or that test slides were poorly designed. Thus, the system allows the instructor to monitor his own performance. Students are kept alert and attention spans are prolonged; communication is increased and personal embarrassment is minimized. Only the instructor has access to the individual student's response. Most learning takes place in the classroom rather than during subsequent private study. This system is quite versatile and offers potential uses hitherto untested in medical education at all levels.