Assessment of the web-based audience response system socrative for biomedical science revision classes

Current generation audience response systems (ARSs) are powerful tools for enabling direct interaction between teacher and student. In this study, 3rd year Biomedical Science students were surveyed about their participation in two separate revision classes. The first revision class used a traditional verbal ‘question and answer’ format, while the second revision class used the ARS Socrative for digital interactive learning. Significantly, more students answered questions in the Socrative revision class, with a higher level of student ‘comfortableness’ to answer questions. While students found both revision class formats useful, more students ranked the Socrative class ‘extremely useful’ and felt ‘very satisfied’ with this class. There was also a strong positive correlation between how useful the students perceived the Socrative class with their satisfaction, highlighting the importance of a positive experience on student learning outcomes. Overall, students preferred the Socrative revision class and indicated it was their preferred style for future revision classes. In conclusion, online polling using ARSs is an effective way to enhance student engagement. Furthermore, it provides instant feedback to the teacher, allowing revision content to be customized in real-time to directly address the students’ learning requirements.