The Use of Mastery Quizzes to Enhance Student Preparation

Abstract

Class preparedness is a frequent academic goal of instructors. Students who have read the material before class save class time that is better devoted to more substantive discussion, allowing the instructor and students to discover where weaknesses in understanding may be occurring. It allows a fuller discussion of the material, its application and its relevance to the student, now and in the future. In this study we tested ideas about mastery learning to see if we could improve student learning. Students took a weekly online quiz using a test bank that could be taken as many times as desired in an effort to reach the maximum points as long as it was finished before the class started. This paper describes the quiz process, results, and student comments. An analysis of the number of student quiz attempts and quiz latencies suggests that most students only make one or two attempts, but some will make many attempts, in some cases as many as 22 times. The results showed that students were motivated to take the quizzes, and thought that the process improved their learning.