Improving Student Engagement and Active Learning with Embedded Automated Self-assessment Quizzes: Case Study in Computer System Architecture Design

This article presents the application of integrating electronic automated self-assessment quizzes within a modern practical computer system architecture module to improve student engagement, learning and performance. Student engagement is a challenging factor within education, where students frequently disengage over module delivery and default to a passive learning style. Learner engagement and responses are crucial to the educator in order to gain insight of the learner’s knowledge base, which allows the educator to react accordingly to consolidate and improve student knowledge formation. Student active learning engagement provides students, an opportunity of applying their learning constructs to gain experience, self-correction, further understanding, build confidence, and develop learning constructs. Self-assessment quizzes were incorporated into the virtual learning environment for a module on computer system architecture to enable live lecture data on student learning constructs, while improving student confidence, further understanding and improved performance on the module.