Staff perspectives on the use of technology for enabling formative assessment and automated student feedback

Academic staff from the Mathematics Education Centre (MEC), Loughborough University began using Electronic Voting Systems (EVS) to teach Mathematics to undergraduate Engineering students in the 2007/2008 academic year. Staff members from other departments at the University, such as Geography, Chemical Engineering and Information Skills, have also been using EVS. This study was designed to investigate the views of affected staff about the use of EVS in lectures and associated pedagogic implications. The results show that EVS is generally seen as an effective teaching tool, as its use can enhance student engagement by increasing their participation in class, give lecturers valuable feedback on student understanding, make the classroom more ‘fun’, and enable lecturers to change teaching practice and curriculum in response to student feedback. However, there are technical and pedagogical issues to be overcome in realising the full potential of EVS.