Using a computed based LSQ as a tool to improve students learning performance

The use of students' assessment as a process to improve educational performance has long been a hot research topic and discussion theme among educators. Different techniques to improve students' learning have been evaluated and among them the "low stake quiz" (LSQ) with frequent feedback has shown promising results (McDaniel, 2011). Although some theoretical studies and testbeds' experiments have already been conducted all around the world, "a few techniques have been evaluated in real representative educational contexts" (Dunlosky et al., 2013). In this paper it is presented a pedagogical experiment conducted within a real representative educational context - a private Portuguese school involving 480 students, with ages ranging from 11 to 15 years old, and 40 teachers. The duration will be a period of three consecutive school years starting in 2018/2019 and ending in 2020/2021. The main objective of the project is to evaluate the impact in students' learning performance both in students' scores and in students, parents and teachers' perceptions. The experiment has started in January 2019 and consists of exposing the students in selected subjects (Portuguese, Maths, History, Geography, Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, English and French) from the 5th to the 9th grades to a short LSQ of about 10 to 15 minutes duration at the end of the class (4 to 6 LSQ per subject per semester). At the end of 2018/2019, a total of 278 LSQ (which means 6273 students' evaluations) had already been completed. After the first experiment year it was noticed that the biggest constraint of this technique was the enormous teacher workload and therefore it was decided to evolve to a computer based LSQ. We will present our web-based application to develop, share and assess LSQ to students and provide immediate feedback to students, parents and teachers. Finally, we will discuss the dimensions related to the introduction of a computer based LSQs and future challenges concerning our web-based platform as a learning tool.