Practice and Theory: Mixing labs and small group tutorials

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Practice and Theory Mixing labs and small group
tutorials

• Dr Petra Leimich
• School of Computing and Creative
  TechnologiesUniversity of Abertay
  Dundeep.leimich_at_abertay.ac.uk

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Database exercises
Write SQL for the following query
... Draw an entity relationship model

• Discuss the two-phase locking protocol

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Tutorials how?

• Work in class or prepare homework?

• More time to prepare
• Students decide how much time to spend
• Less reluctant to contribute
• Efficient use of staff time

• Could be immediately after lecture
• Same starting point
• Help available when students get stuck

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• How long to give for each exercise?
• Inefficient use of staff time
• Reluctance to contribute

• What if students dont do it?
• Or get really stuck?
• Need time after lecture

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Tutorials how?

• How many students?
• More students
• More ideas, fewer groups
• Students hide in numbers, reluctant to contribute
• Fewer students
• Cant hide
• Speak more freely
• Fewer ideas, more groups

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Abertay model

• Each lecture supported by 2 hour lab or 1 hour
  tutorial
• Tutorial groups half the size of lab groups
• ? neutral on staff time
• Students required to prepare for tutorials but
  not labs

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Visible effects

• Deeper, more comprehensive exam answers
• Mean exam grade improved substantially
• More marked improvement for weaker students
• Not all students improved

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Attendance

• Improves performance

• Tutorial attendance much worse than lab

(lower grades are better)
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Student feedback

• I liked the format of the tutorials. I found
  the tutor was most encouraging. I liked it when
  he mapped our answers on the board, they were
  made clearer then and retaining the information
  was improved. If the reading/homework was
  completed for these tutorials, then the tutorials
  were very enthusiastic and enjoyable.

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Student feedback

• It felt like the same people were contributing
  to the discussions every week, which became
  tiresome and as a result my enthusiasm for
  attending waned.
• The teaching style was extremely poor and I
  found it difficult to concentrate and learn.

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Student feedback
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Cause and effect?

• Students who prepared regularly found tuts more
  enjoyable than others
• No association between usefulness rating and
  attendance or preparation

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Tuts and labs compared
I always attended
I enjoyed
were useful for cw/exam
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Discussion

• Postgrads prepare and participate
• Whether assessed or not
• Third years patchy
• Banning attendance when unprepared backfired
• Other approaches?
• Survival cards?
• Assess tutorials? How?
• Make groups smaller?

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Questions
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Scheduling