A Phone-Based Question Management System to Facilitate Questioning and Comprehension Monitoring

Abstract

Research showed that only very small proportion of questions in class was posed by students. Students tended to ignore the questions encountered in class. They were unlikely to actively tackle their confusion or questions. Therefore, the goal of this study is to develop a mobile phone based questioning management system. By integrating mobile phones, course materials with online discussion forum, the system can assist students to ask, trace, monitor and solve comprehension questions encountered in class or after class. From functional perspective, in class or after class when studying, students can: (a) capture contents of paper slides or online courseware, assemble the contents with questions as a whole, and post the assembled questions on a discussion forum via mobile phones; (b) monitor and track the status of post questions via mobile phones as well as organize their personal notes based on the questions during the processes. From the result of formative evaluation for the question management system, students thought the mark mechanism helped questioner enhance the clarity of the questions and thought the progress icons helped them monitor question resolving state and comprehension regarding instructional materials.