Still need help?
Get in touch with the LX.lab team by logging a ticket via ServiceConnect. We'll be in touch shortly.
Log a ticketWant to provide feedback on this resource? Please log in first via the top nav menu.
In this activity students work dynamically in groups with assigned roles to generate, answer and evaluate questions about a particular topic.
The Question & Answer Auditor can use the question evaluation rubric template (also displayed below), to help them verify the questions and answers.
EXCELLENT | Question is particularly clear and thought-provoking and related to the topic Explanation addresses both correct and incorrect answers Question may require knowledge but clearly requires application, analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation skills |
---|---|
VERY GOOD | Question is clear and related to the topic Explanation explains both correct and incorrect answers as needed Question may require knowledge but clearly requires application, analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation skills |
GOOD | Question is clear and related to the topic Explanation explains both correct and incorrect answers as needed Question may require recall of facts but also addresses understanding of the concepts and ideas |
FAIR | Question is clear and related to the topic Explanation addresses both correct and incorrect answers Question addresses recall of factual information and does not require demonstration of understanding, analysis, or evaluation skills |
POOR | Question is clear but unrelated to the topic, or question is clear but the explanation may be missing, incomplete, confusing, or use poor reasoning skills |
VERY POOR | Poses a confusing or unclear question and does not provide an explanation of the correct response |
When asking students to complete this activity before class, we recommend asking them to generate basic information questions. These can be either factual or procedural.
Basic information questions can be designed using multiple-choice, true/false, ordering or filling in blank types of questions.
When asking students to complete this activity after class, we recommend asking them to generate wonderment questions. Wonderment questions are usually pitched at a conceptually higher level, require an application or extension of taught ideas, and focused on predictions, explanations, and causes instead of facts, or on resolving discrepancies and gaps in knowledge.
These questions are usually open-ended questions, so they should be essay question types.
Use the student-generated questions to generate practice quizzes in Canvas for final exam preparation. Simply create a new Question Bank and copy the questions into Canvas from the documents the students created.
You can use Microsoft Forms in this activity, which is supported by UTS. Get started quickly by duplicating our pre-designed Microsoft Forms template.
If you would like to experiment, try Google Forms (please note, it is not officially supported by UTS).
This activity is suitable throughout the session, before and after class activities for the following:
BUILD | TEACH | LEARN |
---|---|---|
60 mins | 30 mins | 60 mins |
Question production, particularly of ‘thinking’ or more probing questions, is not a usual student role. This activity is designed to engage students in collaborative learning activities that promote higher-order thinking. Student-generated questions also provide the teacher with information with which to organise future teaching in response to students’ needs.
Basic information questions are easier to generate as these are closed questions and require recall of information. They are more commonly asked compared to questions requiring deep processing of ideas. Knowledge questions involve a reframing, application, or extension of taught ideas (Chin and Brown, 2002).
Basic information question activities can be created for before class activities as these require a basic understanding of the topic. Students are usually able to ask questions relevant to the processes at later stages of the learning cycle after some intense scaffolding, which is why generating knowledge question activities can be introduced after class activities.
Student-generated questions also proved to enhance students’ learning performance and improve results on exams or quizzes (Sanchez-Elez et al., 2013). However, the strategy requires teachers to act proactively and motivate students to engage with the process. This can be enacted by making them feel more involved in the evaluation of their learning when questions are used in quizzes and final exams.
Fatayer, M. (2019). ‘Student-generated Question Bank’ in Adaptable Resources for Teaching with Technology, LX.Lab, Institute for Interactive Media & Learning, University of Technology, Sydney. Retrieved from lx-dev.uts.edu.au/resources/student-generated-question-bank
The Adaptable Resources for Teaching with Technology collection by LX.Lab, Institute for Interactive Media & Learning, University of Technology, Sydney are provided as open educational resources under
a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Get in touch with the LX.lab team by logging a ticket via ServiceConnect. We'll be in touch shortly.
Log a ticketWant to provide feedback on this resource? Please log in first via the top nav menu.