Worldwide, higher education instructors are exploring ways of enhancing classroom learning experiences with their Tablet PC-equipped students. To collect real-time formative assessment, instructors pose an open-format question to the class and the students utilize the digital ink of Tablet PCs to respond with answers in the form of handwriting, diagrams, graphs, equations, proofs, etc. Instructors receive the responses instantaneously. Built on principles well-grounded in educational research, this not only actively engages the students in their learning, but also increases student metacognition and provides valuable real-time formative assessment to guide the instructor. Several types of software are readily available both commercially and for free to facilitate this classroom exchange. This paper transcends the specifics of various types of software and discusses the experiences of instructors as they mesh their use of this technology-enabled feedback with the delivery of their undergraduate courses. The lessons presented here are drawn from our own experiences as well as input from instructors at other institutions on four continents, received by their voluntary completion of a written survey (n=19).

We describe a unique K-14 outreach program of Colorado School of Mines, a public engineering university. This program is centered on Classroom Communication Systems (a.k.a. student response systems), in which every student uses a handheld, wireless IR remote device to transmit a response to a question posed by the instructor. The responses are recorded and instantaneously compiled in a student-anonymous histogram for all to see. This technology facilitates the dual advantages of actively engaging students in constructivist learning and providing real-time formative assessment for both the instructor and the students. Our successful use of this technology on campus is the foundation for an outreach program open to all Colorado educators, but targeting science and mathematics teachers. K-14 teachers come to campus to learn both technical and pedagogical aspects of using classroom communicators. They return to their own classrooms with all necessary equipment. Three weeks later, they return the equipment to campus and complete this professional development activity with shared reflection and summative assessment. They are eligible for subsequent checkout of the equipment. We discuss the mutual benefits this program provides to the teachers, their students, and the university. Department was honored in June 2001 with the CCHE (Colorado Commission on Higher Education) Program of Excellence Award. This prestigious recognition of the quality and robustness of the Engineering Physics program provided the original funding for dissemination of classroom communicator technology both on-campus and in outreach to the greater kindergarten through community college (K-14) educational community. What is a classroom communication system? Classroom communication system is a generic description for technology alternately known as a student response system, audience feedback system, or more commonly, "clickers." When the teacher poses a multiple-choice question, every student in the classroom transmits a response using a handheld, wireless IR remote. The responses are collected by a receiver and recorded on a computer. The results, instantaneously compiled, are projected as a student-anonymous

Students' curiosity often seems nearly nonexistent in a lecture setting; we discuss a variety of possible reasons for this, but it is the instructor who typically poses questions while only a few students, usually the better ones, respond.As we have developed and implemented the use of InkSurvey to collect real-time formative assessment, we have discovered that it can serve in an unanticipated role: to promote curiosity in engineering physics undergraduates. Curiosity often motivates creative, innovative people. To encourage such curiosity, we solicit questions submitted real-time via InkSurvey and pen-enabled mobile devices (Tablet PCs) in response to interactive simulations (applets) run either before or in class. This provides students with practice in asking questions, increases metacognition, and serves as a rich springboard from which to introduce content and/or address misconceptions.We describe the procedure for measuring curiosity and results from applying this method in a junior level electromagnetics engineering physics course. We conclude that students are indeed more curious than they appear in class, and students participate even without extrinsic motivation. This method of enhancing curiosity using interactive simulations coupled with real-time formative assessment in response to open-format questions could be implemented in a wide variety of science and engineering courses as well as elsewhere.

is a student at Colorado School of Mines, pursuing degrees in engineering physics and electrical engineering. He has been programming in industry for seven years and wrote the InkSurvey software.

Abstract.Creative thought and the ability to innovate are critical skills in industrial and academic careers alike. There exist attempts to foster creative skills in the business world, but little such work has been documented in a physics context. In particular, there are few tools available for those that want to assess the creativity of their physics students, making it difficult to tell whether instruction is having any effect. In this poster we outline a new elective course in the Colorado School of Mines physics department designed to develop creativity and innovation in physics majors. We present our efforts to assess this course formatively using tablet PCs and InkSurvey software, and summatively using the discipline-independent Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. We also describe early work towards developing a physicsspecific instrument for measuring creativity.

graduated from the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) with B.S. degrees in chemical engineering and petroleum refining (CEPR) and in mathematical and computer sciences (MCS) in 1996 and with an M.S. degree in CEPR in 1998. She then got my Ph.D. in chemical engineering, studying transport in zeolite membranes, from CU, Boulder, in 2002. She did a postdoc at TUDelft in the Netherlands in 2002 and 2003, studying oxygen conducting mixed oxide membranes and teaching reactor engineering, and she has been teaching back at CSM since 2004. I am now a Teaching Associate Professor and the Assistant Department Head of the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at CSM. My primary research focus is in pedagogy, specifically in utilizing tablets and other technology and different teaching methods to increase student engagement and reduce/eliminate lecturing in the classroom. She likes to play with her kids, play racquetball, run, bike, swim, and play pool in her free time.

This paper describes results from a project in an undergraduate engineering physics course that coupled classroom use of interactive computer simulations with the collection of real-time formative assessment using pen-enabled mobile technology. Interactive simulations (free or textbook-based) are widely used across the undergraduate science and engineering curriculia to help actively engaged students increase their understanding of abstract concepts or phenomena which are not directly or easily observable. However, there are indications in the literature that we do not yet know the pedagogical best practices associated with their use to maximize learning. This project couples student use of interactive simulations with the gathering of real-time formative assessment via penenabled mobile technology (in this case, Tablet PCs). The research question addressed in this paper is: are learning gains achieved with this coupled model greater for certain types of learners in undergraduate STEM classrooms? To answer this, we correlate learning gains with various learning styles, as identified using the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) developed by Felder and Soloman. These insights will be useful for others who use interactive computer simulations in their instruction and other adopters of this pedagogical model; the insights may have broader implications about modification of instruction to address various learning styles.

This paper first provides an overview of the pedagogical role of formative assessment in the undergraduate engineering classroom. In the last decade, technology-facilitated implementation of the collection and analysis of student responses has reduced the clerical burden on educators, making the practice more widespread. We discuss some of the reasons why this practice may not have yet reached its full potential in undergraduate engineering classrooms, as well as some available solutions.