Sat 21 Feb 2026 14:00 - 14:20 at Meeting Room 105 - Peer Instruction Chair(s): Paul Denny

Despite decades of research on the effectiveness of Peer Instruction (PI), it can be hard to convince computing instructors to try it. In Peer Instruction an instructor displays a hard multiple-choice question during lecture, students answer individually, discuss with peers, and answer independently again. The main reasons computing instructors give for not adopting PI is a lack of awareness, concerns that it would result in less coverage of material in lecture, and the time needed to adopt it. We tried to increase awareness of PI and address instructors’ concerns during a three-day summer instructor workshop with 14 instructors in 2024. A pre-survey was administered on the first day of the workshop and a post-survey on the last day. We administered a second post-survey in the fall of 2024. Later semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine instructors. The adoption rate from the 2024 workshop was over 50%, which was much higher than the previous two workshop’s adoption rate of 23%. The workshop also increased knowledge of PI and alleviated several concerns. However, instructors wanted more follow-up support, an easier and faster way to create new PI questions, and better integration with their Learning Management System (LMS). Instructors who adopted the free tool reported positive student reactions and better understanding of student misconceptions. All instructors who adopted the free tool plan to continue to use it.

Sat 21 Feb

Displayed time zone: Central Time (US & Canada) change

13:40 - 15:00
Peer Instruction Papers at Meeting Room 105
Chair(s): Paul Denny The University of Auckland
13:40
20m
Talk
A Multi-Institutional Study on Peer Instruction: Evaluating Text-Chat with Assigned Group Members vs Verbal Discussion
Papers
Xingjian Gu University of Michigan, Barbara Ericson University of Michigan, Zihan Wu University of Michigan, Margaret Ellis Virginia Tech, Janice Pearce Berea College, Susan Rodger Duke University, Yesenia Velasco Duke University
14:00
20m
Talk
Overcoming Barriers to Adopting Peer Instruction
Papers
Xingjian Gu University of Michigan, Memuna Tariq University of Michigan, Zihan Wu University of Michigan, Barbara Ericson University of Michigan
14:20
20m
Talk
Supporting Peer-to-Peer Learning with LLMs: Investigating Smarter Student Solution Recommendations}
Papers
Sandra Wiktor University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Aileen Benedict University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Mohsen Dorodchi University of North Carolina Charlotte