1 Tracking Student Participation in Large Classes Task Analysis Team Members: Danny Garfield Timothy Kou (Nai-Shu Kou) Emma Miller Erez Morag Michael Vo Sponsor: Stephen Arnold Computer Science 160, Fall 2005 University of California, Berkeley2 Table of Contents 1. Six Tasks......................................................................................3 2. Contextual Inquiry Plan...............................................................6 3. Analysis........................................................................................8 4. Observation Notes......................................................................123 1) Six Tasks: A. A student wishes to communicate to the instructor that he or she wishes to a) ask a question of the instructor, or b) respond to a question posed by the instructor. (Easy) Method: 1) Raise your hand. 2) If you can’t raise your hand, raise your voice. Objects and Communications: 1) Hand or voice 2) Act of raising hand or voice Environment: When the student is performing this task, he or she is sitting in a classroom or lecture hall amongst other students. The student is most likely listening to the instructor’s lecture, and at most is otherwise taking notes on the lecture. The student would perform this task when he or she is looking for clarification or is wishing to make a contribution to a class discussion. B. The instructor needs to see when one or more students wish to speak, either to ask a question or to respond to the instructor’s question, and acknowledge the student’s wishes. (Medium) Method: 1) Look at student body. 2) Choose a student from one or several candidates who has raised his hand. 3) Verbally address or gesture towards chosen student. Objects and Communications: 1) Students wishing to participate. 2) Act of acknowledging the student which has been chosen, either verbally or through gesture. Environment: The instructor is completing this task while he or she is on a lecture stage or clear area, possibly near or behind a podium. The group of students being taught is in front of the instructor.4 C. The instructor wishes to record that a student has participated, as well as recording the quality of that student’s participation. (Hard) Method: 1) Consider the student’s contribution to the class, whether it be a question or a response to your question. 2) Grade the quality of the student’s contribution. 3) Write down student’s name and contribution grade. 4) If using digital spreadsheet, copy handwritten data into spreadsheet. Objects and Communications: 1) Paper 2) Writing utensil 3) Student’s verbal contribution Environment: The instructor is completing this task while he or she is on a lecture stage or clear area, possibly near or behind a podium. The group of students being taught is in front of the instructor. D. The instructor needs to see raw participation data, including number and quality of students’ contributions. (Medium) Method: 1) Turn on computer. 2) Load application that displays spreadsheets (e.g. Microsoft Excel). 3) Open spreadsheet file containing students’ grades. Objects and Communications: 1) Computer 2) Monitor 3) Keyboard and/or digital mouse 4) Application capable of displaying spreadsheets 5) Digital spreadsheet containing your students’ grades. Environment: Instructor is usually in his or her office or home, or some other quiet setting where he or she often works and expects to not be disturbed. Instructor is most likely sitting comfortably at a table, with the computer in front of him or her.5 E. Instructor needs to modify raw participation data, including number and quality of students’ contributions. (Easy) Method: 1) Turn on computer. 2) Load application that displays spreadsheets (e.g. Microsoft Excel). 3) Open spreadsheet file containing students’ grades. 4) Use keyboard or mouse to modify values contained within spreadsheet. Objects and Communications: 1) Computer 2) Monitor 3) Keyboard and/or digital mouse 4) Application capable of displaying spreadsheets 5) Digital spreadsheet containing your students’ grades. Environment: Instructor is usually in his or her office or home, or some other quiet setting where he or she often works and expects to not be disturbed. Instructor is most likely sitting comfortably at a table, with the computer in front of him or her. F. The instructor wants to see reports (e.g. statistical analyses or models) of participation data, including number and quality of students’ contributions. (Hard) Method: 1) Turn on computer. 2) Load application that displays spreadsheets (e.g. Microsoft Excel). 3) Open spreadsheet file containing students’ grades. 4) Specify which portion of the data is to be encoded into a report. 5) Finalize decisions to display report through the application. Objects and Communications: 1) Computer 2) Monitor 3) Keyboard and/or digital mouse 4) Application capable of displaying spreadsheets 5) Digital spreadsheet containing your students’ grades. Environment: Instructor is usually in his or her office or home, or some other quiet setting where he or she often works and expects to not be disturbed. Instructor is most likely sitting comfortably at a table, with the computer in front of him or her.6 2) Contextual Inquiry Plan: Project Introduction We are currently developing a system that can be used to track student participation in a classroom setting. Since you are an instructor, we were hoping to get input from you on what you would like from such a system. We have some quick questions on how you have previously handled participation and what you would want from a new system. If it is not too much trouble, we were hoping we could meet with you and take an hour of your time. Thank you very much in advance for your participation. Proposed Wrap-Up Thank you very much for spending your time with us. We will use this data to try to customize our participation to the needs you described. You really did answer several questions we needed answers to, and brought up several new ideas we hadn’t yet though of. Thanks again. Proposed Questions for Instructors Personal Interview 1) How/do you currently grade participation? If not, why? And if you do, what system do you use? Have you ever heard and considered using the remote control system? 2) How much time do you spend on keeping track of participation and when do you spend time
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