The impact of using electronic voting systems for university mathematics teaching: a multi-institutional perspective

This study focused on the research question: What is the impact of using the educational technology, Electronic Voting Systems (EVS), for undergraduate mathematics teaching? The question is addressed from two perspectives. First, a survey study was designed to ascertain the views of academics from multiple institutions in the UK on how they have incorporated the use of EVS in their undergraduate teaching. This showed that the EVS use influences instructor pedagogical principles for creating and using mathematics questions in undergraduate classrooms. It has also catalyzed active instructor-student feedback in real time, while facilitating student (cognitive) engagement through the provision of mathematical problem solving in real time. Secondly, a finer grained evaluation study was conducted, based on classroom observations and limited student interview data, and showed that, pedagogically, the use of specific EVS-based mathematics questions has helped in aligning teaching with learning, so as to achieve intended learning objectives. Its use has also helped in enhancing student cognitive engagement through feedback predicated on deliberate practice. However, the study did not show any demonstrable impact of EVS use on student performance, attendance or retention.