Rapid Educational Improvements Using Wyblo: Insights from an Effective Feedback System

Brief Abstract

The session will reveal the power of real-time feedback loops in education and how institutions can implement best practices in their courses. We will share the studies and findings on what engagement is, how and when to measure it, who should receive the insights and what to do with them.

Extended Abstract

Goals of the session

Understanding students behind a screen is a difficult task; however, there are some best practices that will support students, professors, and organization in creating meaningful connections.

In this session, you will learn how continuous real-time feedback loops can be implemented in each course. In particular, you will get answers to the following questions:

1. What are the pillars of engagement that influence the students’ performance?

2. How should we assess such pillars?

3. How often should we collect feedback?

4. Who should receive that feedback?

5. What actions should we take based on the feedback we receive?

Shared knowledge and technology

We plan to share with the participants the studies and technology applied in Wyblo -- the platform that is able to scientifically measure the students' engagement and create a continuous real-time feedback loop system. This allows students and professors to constantly exchange constructive, structured feedback throughout the semester to ultimately enhance the learning and teaching experience.

Context

Engagement is one of the major drivers of students' learning experience, a fundamental aspect that professors and institutions can sometimes overlook. This is why we always put the students' well-being and their motivation at the forefront of our product vision. Our Framework of Engagement© (i.e. Pillars of Motivation) grounds its foundations on the factors of intrinsic motivation [Level of interest in the subject (Schiefele, 2009), Clarity of Goals (Gollwitzer & Moskowitz, 1996), Exposure to New Concepts (Murayama, et al. 2018), Learning Progress, Sense of Control, Trust (Deci & Ryan, 2000), Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation (Deci, 1971; Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett, 1971), Self-Confidence (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000), Social Interactions (Telhaj, S., 2018), Flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)].

Wyblo's main feature is what we define as the feedback loop system, able to continuously collect answers from students (60-80 seconds after each class) and to provide professors with constantly updated dashboards of their students’ learning drivers and engagement.

To date, we are able to accurately measure these factors by using an innovative evaluation assessment based on the Psychological Hypothetical Projective Questions©, which does not use the traditional rating scales (eg. from 1 to 10 scales or the Likert scale “Strongly agree” vs “Strongly disagree”) as it is hard for students to relate to a number when assessing their engagement causing the outcomes to be unreliable. Instead, we give 3 hypothetical questions into which students can project and recognize themselves in.

We base our algorithms on behavioural science and data analytics to give universities a clear overview of the course, enhance their students' learning experience, and motivation and engagement level. We believe that the inefficiencies of the current systems in the market are negatively affecting the relationships between students, professors and institutions. EdTech can now offer alternatives to confront the problem. To validate our assumptions, we conducted several problem-solution interviews. By working together with an international team of psychologists, pedagogists, data scientists and mentors, we came up with an innovative solution. Our platform aims to be the place where every opinion matters, as it highlights how to improve within the institution. By granting anonymity, everyone has a chance to share their point of view and contribute to positive changes.

Why is this session relevant?

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4 of the United Nations refers to the “Quality of Education: ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Wyblo contributes to this goal by giving each student a voice and agency in their learning experience. Measuring students' engagement/motivation leads to higher academic and personal satisfaction; ultimately boosting their learning performance, resulting in the expansion of the students' societal potential. Then the cycle restarts as by achieving more potential, students are more motivated.

This not only impacts the life of each student, but impacts their participation in society as well. By having a more educated population, we are able to progress and develop the right mindset and solutions to solve the other SDGs. The quote from Christine Gregoire best exemplifies this: “Education is the foundation upon which we build our future.” If this is true, why is the process of learning perceived by many as stressful and not rewarding? Motivation is key to answer this question and in the approach we pursue.

The session will be broken up into 5 sections answering the 5 questions mentioned above:

1. What are the pillars of engagement that influence the students’ performance?
   The audience will familiarize themselves with the word “engagement” and will discover a holistic framework of 11 pillars of motivation.

2. How should we assess such pillars?
   Knowing what to measure is not enough if you do not know how. In this section, the participants will understand the value of the Hypothetical Projective Questions and how they help the students in self-reflecting on their own learning experience and provide reliable insights to improve the course.

3. How often should we collect feedback?
   After knowing what to measure and how, we need to understand when to do so and how often. Here we will uncover the power of continuous feedback and how it overcomes the challenges of the end-of-course evaluation.

4. Who should receive that feedback?
   Gathering data has no value if no one sees it. Feedback should be shared among the students, professors, and institutions to create a culture of transparency built on open and constructive communication.

5. What actions should we take based on the feedback we receive?
   Finally, we will realize how everything explored so far can be put to use by professors who can make the rights decisions at the right time to enhance the learning and teaching experience.

The structure of the session - Interactivity

The sessions will be split into 4 parts:

1. Storytelling (5 min): Engage the audience emotionally by sharing the life of a student who does not have the instruments to make their opinion known.
   The story will begin with something like:
   “Imagine you were a student. You sit in a class for several months and when the course is over, you are asked for feedback. However, since it is asked at the end of the semester, what is done is done, and nothing will change for the student answering.”

2. Reflection (30 min): The audience will need to have their phones and be ready to answer some interactive polls, which we will be used as the foundation for the rest of our discussion. We will continuously ask questions throughout the presentation to keep the audience engaged and help them reflect on their answers throughout the duration of the session.

3. The Wyblo case and testimonials (5 min): In this last part of the presentation, we will see how we apply our discussion key points into the Wyblo platform and how it automates the entire feedback process for educational institutions. All the participants joining the session will be given a free pilot phase for their courses and institutions.

4. Q&A (5 min): Get the questions from the audience and connect.