Promoting Interaction in Large Classes with a Computer-Mediated Feedback System

Eliciting student participation in large college classes is notoriously difficult yet critical to learning. This paper describes a design experiment with a computer-mediated feedback system for promoting class interaction. We delineate specific challenges to interaction and propose design principles to address them in computer-mediated systems. A prototype realizing these principles establishes a computer-mediated channel for student-initiated feedback. Students position preset annotations (e.g., SLOW DOWN, EXPLAIN) directly on the lecture slides. The system presents an anonymized summary to the instructor in real time. An experiment in a large class validates our design and suggests new lessons for computer-mediated, student-initiated interaction.