Dive Brief:
- An app for iPhones and iPads, made by Caltech alumni who co-founded Su-Kam Intelligent Education Systems (SKIES), lets students create a shared bulletin board to discuss lecture topics in real-time.
- Campus Technology reports that Caltech professor Bruce Hay uses it to gauge how much his students comprehend from each lecture, tailoring future lessons based on their questions and their rating of their understanding of individual concepts.
- SKIES co-founder Julius Su said students are already multitasking in class, but his app allows them to satisfy the itch of shifting their attention with another productive task, even if it does briefly pull them away from the lecture.
Dive Insight:
Hay found use of the app to coincide with higher grades for his students, from a class average of a B to an A. During class, students have the opportunity to pose questions on the virtual bulletin board they may not want to ask out loud. Other students can then answer them, providing a peer-to-peer learning opportunity that could be more valuable than even a direct response from the professor. Former president of Kent State University Lester Lefton finds peer-to-peer learning to be critical, endorsing an online, on-demand tutoring service for its ability to connect students with expertise to others who need their help.
SKIES is available for free in beta form and its co-founders are developing a web-based version that will work on all devices, rather than just Apple phones and tablets.