Systematic and Rigorous Use of Feedback to Enhance Learning in Engineering Classes

Feedback is among the most common features of successful teaching and learning. Feedback aims to reduce the gap between where the students are and where they are meant to be. In order to bridge this gap, teachers must incorporate feedback in classroom effectively. There is a need to understand different ways in which feedback can be provided in classroom. There is also a need to identify and implement simple yet systematic procedure to provide regular and transparent feedback in classroom. This study presents deliberate use of spaced questioning to understand how to take full benefits from feedback in the classroom. Feedback is summarized based on the errors committed by the students. Instead of considering the errors simply as deficit of knowledge or inability of students to think correctly, they can be treated as opportunities to bridge the gap of what students know and what they should know. Knowing and acknowledging these errors is the key contribution of a teacher, which can be attained through feedback in classroom. The participants in this study were first year engineering students of 14 classes, enrolled for the Engineering Mechanics course. An ICT tool named MKCL SuperCampus, was used to pose questions and to track real time individual performance in the classroom. The use of the ICT tool provided an easy and fearless environment for students to participate comfortably, thereby motivating them to make and learn from errors and to engage more while learning in classes.