Usage Vignettes

• Christy, a college sophomore in Organic Chemistry with 175 other students realized she has gotten lost during today’s lecture. She ‘rewinds’ the live transcript of the lecture to try to catch up, realizes she still doesn’t quite get it, and clicks the “I’m Lost” button.

• During the few minutes surrounding when Christy clicked “I’m Lost,” thirty other students also indicated that they were lost. Because the instructor had set the cluelessness threshold at 15%, the instructor pauses the lecture to quickly catch everybody up.

• Fifteen minutes later, Jimmy realizes he is lost. He clicks “I’m Lost,” only to realize that he is one of only a few who is lost. He has two options. One: raise his hand to ask a question. Two: Write a question into the Collective Q&A. He goes with option two and five minutes later, a classmate or TA provides an answer to his question.

• Still not clear, Jimmy goes to office hours to ask Professor Smith about the question he posed in yesterday’s lecture. The professor logs into the app, drills down to Jimmy’s profile, and looks through his prior “I’m Lost” clicks as well as the questions he has asked. It is clear that Jimmy is missing one key concept that will help to answer all of his other questions.

• As a routine part of nightly study, Christy logs into the app to post questions she has as well as to provide answers to questions other students have raised. When she provides meaningful and accurate feedback to other students, she earns points, which may be used by her professor to boost her grade.

• As a routine part of his nightly study, Jimmy reviews lecture transcripts and ties questions to specific points in lecture that he does not understand.

• Before each new lecture, Professor Smith adds a collection of question topics and areas to spur discussion in the Q&A.

• After each lecture, Professor Smith is able to review where students had trouble and to review in detail where students are having trouble. He goes through student responses to indicate “instructor-approved” answers as a means of awarding bonus points. Based on who indicated they were lost and when they indicated that they were lost, he is able to improve the content of the next lecture and to improve the lecture for when he gives it again in the same course next year.

• After several semesters Professor Smith has a large collection of past student “I’m Lost” data and peer-to-peer Q&A histories that he uses to anticipate student questions, prepare Teaching Assistants, and improve lecture.