Clickers in a Flipped Lab; feedback to enhance engagement in first year Science.

Anecdotal evidence from lecturers engaged
in teaching practical’s is that there is very
little if any interaction from the students
with the pre-lab reading resources as
posted on Moodle or in the laboratory
manuals provided at the beginning of the
semester. The lecturer must provide a
pre-lab lecture which takes up valuable lab
time. The lecturer in this instance identified
a first year biology group to take part in the
study. The students were introduced to the
clicker technology and asked if they were
willing to take part in the study.
The aim of this research was to determine
the effectiveness of using a flipped
classroom approach in laboratory sessions.
This involved using the clickers to conduct
a short pre-lab quiz in place of the usual
pre-lab lecture. This quiz tested student
knowledge of the pre-lab reading material
hosted on Moodle. It provided feedback to
the student on their individual knowledge
and the aggregate knowledge of their peers.
It also provided feedback to the lecturer.
It was hypothesized that students
would find the feedback useful and that
the flipping would result in increased
engagement with the Moodle resources and improved student preparedness