Online Quizzes as Mediating Tools for Teaching Information Communication Technology to First Year Students at a College of Education in the Developing Context of Lesotho
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Abstract
In this study we investigate how the use of online quizzes can mediate students’ acquisition of scientific concepts within the zone of proximal development (ZPD). We draw on the work of Vygotsky (1978) in our conception of pedagogy as mediated, or guided, by a culturally more competent other in a uniquely developmental social space that he terms the ZPD. This space is opened in a pedagogical setting where a novice is mediated into acquiring abstract, or scientific concepts. The use of online tools in teaching in Higher Education is gaining in relevance due to the isolating effects of the covid pandemic. Three hundred and sixty first year students, enrolled for the Diploma in Secondary Education, studying Computer Awareness and Skills were given access to three online quizzes every three weeks alongside instruction. Seventy students completed all 3 quizzes. These mediated quizzes provided the lecturer with knowledge about what students knew and what they needed to know, providing access to students’ ZPD. Findings indicate that 1) use of the quizzes leads to statistically significant increase in marks over time, 2) that students who wrote all three quizzes outperformed their peers who did not write the quizzes on the final semester paper and pen test and 3) that students felt that the quizzes motivated them to learn. We conclude that ICTs, in the form of online, mediated quizzes can mediate acquisition of knowledge in a tertiary setting.
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