Retention following Two-Stage Collaborative Exams Depends on Timing and Student Performance

Multistage collaborative exams are implemented to enhance learning and retention of course material. However, the effects of multistage collaborative exams on retention of course content are varied. These discrepancies may be due to a number of factors. To date, studies examining collaborative exams and content retention have used questions that all, or mostly, require students to select an answer, rather than generate one of their own. However, content retention can improve when students generate their own responses. Thus, we examined the effect of collaborative exams with open-ended questions on retention of course content. Retention was measured at two time periods; one relatively shortly (9 days) following a collaborative exam and another over a longer time period (23 days). Furthermore, we examined whether content retention differed for low-, mid-, or high-­performing students. Our results suggest that collaborative exams offer retention benefits at relatively long time periods between pre- and posttests, but not over shorter time periods. Retention varied across students in different performance categories. Our study, the first to use only open-ended questions, showed relatively small effects compared with studies using multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank format, but still suggest that collaborative exams can aid in content retention.

TEACHING BEYOND SOCRATES: AN EXPERIMENT WITH ICTS FOR AN UNDERGRADUATE COURSE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AT A UNIVERSITY IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL

This research examined the influence of multimedia presentations on content retention and satisfaction of business administration students when subjected to different didactic standards. For this study we used experimental procedures with 147 undergraduate students of Business Administration at a university in southern Brazil. As for the retention of the contents, statistical differences were found between the experimental groups; classes with dynamic slides showed better results. As for the influences of teaching tools in students' satisfaction, the survey indicated that dynamic slides facilitate the logical and rational development of the discipline and raise students' motivation. Traditional slides, in turn, can disperse the interest of the student and suppress attention to the teacher.