USING TABLET PCS AND ASSOCIATED TECHNOLOGIES TO REVEAL UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDENT THINKING

The How People Learn framework(1, 2) was applied to redesign the courses Food Chemistry (IA-332) and Advanced Food Chemistry (IA-530). Our goal was to improve undergraduate and graduate food chemistry teaching and learning by creating high-quality learning environments that promote an interactive classroom while integrating formative assessments into classroom practices by means of Tablet PCs and associated technologies(3, 4). We utilized InkSurvey, a web-based tool to pose open-ended questions to students during class and receive real-time student responses(5). Furthermore, we identified classroom assessment techniques appropriate to the course and adapted them into a Tablet PC/Classroom Presenter environment to gauge student learning in real time, provide immediate feedback, and make real-time pedagogical adjustments as needed(6). The redesign of IA-332 and IA-530 increased student participation and formative assessments while instructors utilized the information gained through real-time formative assessment to tailor instruction to meet student needs. This paper highlights what we have learned (through qualitative and quantitative analysis of the information obtained from four semesters) about the potential of Tablet PCs and associated technologies to create classroom tasks and conditions under which student thinking can be revealed.