Using a Personal Response System to Map Cognitive Efficiency and Gain Insight into a Proposed Learning Progression in Preparatory Chemistry.

Personal response systems (“clickers”) have become an important means for instructors to gauge student learning in large lecture classes. In addition to measuring students’ performance on a particular question, requesting a measure of mental effort from students allows for richer data concerning student learning. This information can be provided to an individual student for a better gauge of his or her understanding of specific content, allowing that student to target his or her studies for subsequent assessments. Mental effort information also provides instructors with an opportunity to consider instructional interventions based on more than just performance. Lastly, using measures of both performance and reported mental effort can provide a better understanding of the learning progression. This paper describes using performance and mental effort data on review items given regularly in lecture with clickers in order to train the students to use the study reports and the mental effort rating system. The combination of high or low clicker performance and high or low mental effort was examined with exam performance and final grade as well as performance within specific content areas. A progression of high–low clicker performance and high–low mental effort and performance on assessments or in the course is discussed.

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