A SURVEY TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF TABLET PC-BASED ACTIVE LEARNING:
PRELIMINARY REPORT AND LESSONS LEARNED

Edward Price, California State University San Marcos,        eprice@csusm.edu
Beth Simon, University of California, San Diego,        bsimon@cs.ucsd.edu

In this work we report on a preliminary survey to assess the impact of active learning using the Ubiquitous Presenter (UP) system on students’ approaches to learning and valuation of various ways to spend class time.  We report on pre- and post- test results from four higher education institutions in computer science and physics classes, half using active learning (AL), half not.  Overall, we show little change in student pedagogical viewpoint – and some change is not in the direction we would hope for.  We reflect on the pitfalls of our survey design and the realities of whether we should expect to change student pedagogical viewpoints in one term.  We seek input in the form of discussion on our collective expectations for pedagogical shift in a higher education student body.