Poser, an Online Review Tool in Java

This paper presents an online reviewing tool, Poser, written in the Java programming language. Online quizzing tools have proliferated lately, but most are not so wellsuited for reviewing. Poser’s basic functionality is to provide students with a convenient, interactive way to review course materials in a question/answer format. Incorrect responses are corrected, along with an optional explanation. The program keeps usage statistics and information on responses to questions. Poser can be an important part of any course, because it gives students an easy way to test their understanding of the course materials from any Internet computer. We used Poser in two introductory Computer Science courses and gathered some formative data which was used to modify and evaluate the program. Over 100 students used the program and they answered over 38,000 questions while reviewing for their final exams. Student comments indicate that the program was very helpful. Overall, we feel that Poser was a huge success and are planning a controlled study in the coming semesters to measure how much the use of the program facilitates student learning and understanding.