Daily Online Testing in Large Classes: Boosting College Performance while Reducing Achievement Gaps

An in-class computer-based system, that included daily online testing, was introduced to two large university classes. We examined subsequent improvements in academic performance and reductions in the achievement gaps between lower- and upper-middle class students in academic performance. Students (N = 901) brought laptop computers to classes and took daily quizzes that provided immediate and personalized feedback. Student performance was compared with the same data for traditional classes taught previously by the same instructors (N = 935). Exam performance was approximately half a letter grade above previous semesters, based on comparisons of identical questions asked from earlier years. Students in the experimental classes performed better in other classes, both in the semester they took the course and in subsequent semester classes. The new system resulted in a 50% reduction in the achievement gap as measured by grades among students of different social classes. These findings suggest that frequent consequential quizzing should be used routinely in large lecture courses to improve performance in class and in other concurrent and subsequent courses.

[1]  Henry L. Roediger,et al.  Ten benefits of testing and their applications to educational practice. , 2011 .

[2]  M. Orne.  On the social psychology of the psychological experiment: With particular reference to demand characteristics and their implications. , 1962 .

[3]  Jeffrey D. Karpicke,et al.  Test-Enhanced Learning , 2006, Psychological science.

[4]  B. Zimmerman,et al.  Self-regulation of learning and performance: Issues and educational applications. , 1994 .

[5]  Jeffrey D. Karpicke,et al.  The Power of Testing Memory Basic Research and Implications for Educational Practice , 2006 .

[6]  B. Zimmerman,et al.  Self-regulated learning : from teaching to self-reflective practice , 1998 .

[7]  Frank C. Leeming,et al.  The Exam-A-Day Procedure Improves Performance in Psychology Classes , 2002 .

[8]  Matthew Jensen Hays,et al.  Journal of Experimental Psychology : Learning , Memory , and Cognition When and Why a Failed Test Potentiates the Effectiveness of Subsequent Study , 2012 .

[9]  J. Kruger,et al.  Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. , 1999, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[10]  Robert J. Crutcher,et al.  The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. , 1993 .

[11]  Genna Angello,et al.  Multiple-Choice Tests Exonerated, at Least of Some Charges , 2012, Psychological science.

[12]  David C. Haak,et al.  Increased Structure and Active Learning Reduce the Achievement Gap in Introductory Biology , 2011, Science.

[13]  Selcuk R. Sirin.  Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review of Research , 2005 .

[14]  Elizabeth J Marsh,et al.  Using verification feedback to correct errors made on a multiple-choice test , 2012, Memory.

[15]  B. Zimmerman,et al.  Social Origins of Self-Regulatory Competence , 1997 .

[16]  K. White.  The relation between socioeconomic status and academic achievement. , 1982 .

[17]  B. Zimmerman.  Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: An Overview , 1990 .

[18]  Jeffrey D. Karpicke,et al.  The Critical Importance of Retrieval for Learning , 2008, Science.

[19]  Louis Deslauriers,et al.  Improved Learning in a Large-Enrollment Physics Class , 2011, Science.

[20]  R. Hauser,et al.  Measuring socioeconomic status in studies of child development. , 1994, Child development.

[21]  B. Bloom.  The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-to-One Tutoring , 1984 .

[22]  Keith B. Lyle,et al.  Retrieving Essential Material at the End of Lectures Improves Performance on Statistics Exams , 2011 .

[23]  R. Rosenthal.  Experimenter effects in behavioral research , 1968 .

[24]  M. Tienda,et al.  High School Economic Composition and College Persistence , 2013, Research in higher education.

[25]  Chen-Lin C. Kulik,et al.  Effectiveness of Mastery Learning Programs: A Meta-Analysis , 1990 .

[26]  Valerie Purdie-Vaughns,et al.  Recursive Processes in Self-Affirmation: Intervening to Close the Minority Achievement Gap , 2009, Science.

[27]  B. Zimmerman.  Developing self-fulfilling cycles of academic regulation: An analysis of exemplary instructional models. , 1998 .

[28]  Andrew C. Porter,et al.  Common Core Standards , 2011 .

[29]  B. Bloom.  Human Characteristics and School Learning , 1979 .