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Main Authors: Tarr, Steven W., Alicea-Muñoz, Emily
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.09145
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author Tarr, Steven W.
Alicea-Muñoz, Emily
author_facet Tarr, Steven W.
Alicea-Muñoz, Emily
contents Science communication skills are considered essential learning objectives for undergraduate physics students. However, high enrollment and limited class resources present significant barriers to providing students ample opportunities to practice their formal presentation skills. We investigate the use of integrated critical reflection and peer evaluation activities in a physics senior seminar course both to improve student learning outcomes and to supplement highly restricted presentation time. Throughout the semester, each student delivers one 8-min multimedia presentation on either their research or an upper-division course topic. Following each presentation, audience members complete one of two randomly assigned peer evaluations: a treatment form that prompts critical reflection or a control form that does not. Each class period concludes with a short quiz on concepts presented in that day's presentations. We observe minimal differences in quiz scores between students in the control and treatment groups. Instead, we find that retention and transfer of presentation content correlate with certain metrics of presentation quality described in the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning and with self-identified prior exposure to presentation topics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_09145
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Reflecting to learn in a physics multimedia communication course
Tarr, Steven W.
Alicea-Muñoz, Emily
Physics Education
Science communication skills are considered essential learning objectives for undergraduate physics students. However, high enrollment and limited class resources present significant barriers to providing students ample opportunities to practice their formal presentation skills. We investigate the use of integrated critical reflection and peer evaluation activities in a physics senior seminar course both to improve student learning outcomes and to supplement highly restricted presentation time. Throughout the semester, each student delivers one 8-min multimedia presentation on either their research or an upper-division course topic. Following each presentation, audience members complete one of two randomly assigned peer evaluations: a treatment form that prompts critical reflection or a control form that does not. Each class period concludes with a short quiz on concepts presented in that day's presentations. We observe minimal differences in quiz scores between students in the control and treatment groups. Instead, we find that retention and transfer of presentation content correlate with certain metrics of presentation quality described in the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning and with self-identified prior exposure to presentation topics.
title Reflecting to learn in a physics multimedia communication course
topic Physics Education
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.09145