Real-time Comment Scrolling System Toward an Interactive Class

In this study, we developed a real-time comment scrolling system (RCSS) that overlays students' comments on a lecturer's personal computer by scrolling, and we practically evaluated it for half a year in university classes. The purpose of RCSS is to enhance active communication between a teacher and students, that is, the interactivity of the class. We evaluated the effectiveness of the RCSS by recording the comment logs and collecting the questionnaire results through trial operations in university classes. Results showed that most students posted positive answers: “RCSS made communication with the teacher easy,” “RCSS enhanced my motivation,” and “RCSS improved my understanding.” Conversely, 10% of the students considered the comments to be a hindrance. About 30%—40% of the students posted comments to the RCSS as needed. This study also aimed to analyze the comment logs by category. The number of utterances related to the lecture doubled before and after the RCSS introduction. We found that RCSS contributed to the realization of an interactive class.