Using IF-AT Cards to Engage Students in Deeper Learning of Course Content

Abstract

The free access to online materials has changed the role of traditional lectures from being a vehicle to deliver course content to providing face-to-face guidance to clarify and expand on difficult concepts. This means students instead of listening and taking notes, participate in interactive activities that revise the lecture’s content. Active learning strategies are seen as positive steps towards increasing students’ engagement and learning during class time. In particular, posting multiple-choice questions (MCQ) is a popular technique to both capture student attention and fix possible misconceptions. Quizzes using IF-AT cards differ from other in-class MCQ approaches such as clickers in that students work in groups, and that they must continue to discuss a question until they find the correct answer. This paper reports on two different experiences of using IF-AT cards to revise course content for (a) a second- year Computer Systems course at the University of Adelaide and (b) a first-year Physics course at Universidad del Pacifico. The dynamics of team collaboration and its impact on test results is analysed for each course. Both case studies indicate that IF-AT cards succeed in engaging students to discuss and consolidate their knowledge. Additionally, collaborative discussion supports soft skills development such as technical communication skills.