Teaching.IU

Context

Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT for short) is a pedagogical method that promotes engagement by leveraging home-work time to promote interactive learning in the classroom. My collaborators and I use the WWW to create a feedback loop between a new class of online homework assignments and the classroom experience. By using the results of this new homework in class, we make the classroom more effective in addressing students’ needs. The results include improved learning, better student attitudes, and opportunities to cover material in greater depth.

JiTT was developed in the late 1990s by the author and collaborators in the physics departments at IUPUI and the US Air Force Academy (Novak, Patterson, Gavrin, & Christian, 1999). JiTT is now used in introductory, advanced, and graduate level courses across the university curriculum; it is used in community colleges and research universities (Simkins & Maier, 2009). JiTT can improve results in classes large and small, but it has the biggest impact on medium to large lecture settings.

Step-by-Step Implementation

The centerpiece of the JiTT method is the new category of homework that we term “Warm up exercises.” The “warmups” (for short) are web-based assignments that students complete before the class period in which the relevant material is to be discussed. Students complete these assignments based on assigned pre-class reading. Think of the warmups as online, pre-class, reading quizzes. Like reading quizzes, students have an increased incentive to prepare before class. There are several additional benefits, though, that distinguish JiTT from a reading quiz:

• The warmup is online, so no class time is used.
• Students must think about the material rather than simply read it uncritically.
• The instructor can evaluate the results before the class.

This last point is critical. Based on her students’ performance, the instructor makes adjustments to her plans for the class time. She may change the emphasis, add or drop topics, etc. We also find it useful to bring examples of students’ responses to class and use these as talking points during the class discussion.

The JiTT instructional process consists of five steps:

 Students read the material in a textbook or other source.

1. Students complete the warmup, which is due a few hours before class.
2. The instructor reviews the warmup responses and makes “just-in-time” adjustments to her plans for the class period.
3. The instructor brings excerpts from the students’ responses to class, and incorporates them in the discussion.
4. The instructor prepares or adjusts the subsequent warmup to match the needs of the class.

Faculty have considerable flexibility in implementing JiTT. The gap between the time the warmup is due, and the class period may vary from hours to days. The frequency of warmups each week, the length of the assignments, how credit is determined, etc., may all be adjusted to local needs. Even the names of the assignments vary: faculty at the US Air Force Academy use the term “Pre-flight check.”

What makes a good warmup? A few questions that are open-ended enough to draw students out, and that produce answers that will be good “discussion starters” in the classroom. We often construct questions by asking, “In your own words, explain what <new idea> means.”

How can the warmup responses be incorporated in the discussion (step four, above)? We prefer to use anonymous excerpts from students’ work as “talking points” in class. For instance, an instructor may project an example of student work on the screen and ask students to respond to it. Is it correct? Is it complete? Is it based on the concepts being introduced in class? A faculty member may post two responses to the same question, and ask students to discuss the relative merits with their neighbors before polling the class on which one is best. Faculty may post exemplary answers, praise them, then ask under what other circumstances these answers will remain valid or require modification. Each instructor will find ways that suit him or her. Our only caution is never to decide answers in front of the class.

Effectiveness

Benefits of interaction among faculty and students are widely recognized (Hake, 1998; McKeachie, Pintrich, Lin & Smith, 1986). Alexander Astin (1997) identified student-student and student-faculty interactions as the most important factors contributing to student success (along with time-on-task). Using JiTT, these interactions can be dramatically enhanced. JiTT also clearly promotes increased time-on-task by promoting timely completion of assigned reading. Grounding the classroom discussion in warmup responses also makes the class explicitly learner-centered, and encourages students to participate (McCombs & Whistler, 1997).

We have evaluated the effects of JiTT on both student attitudes and measures of learning, and found positive results in both cases. For instance, we have used pre-test/post-test methods and shown that students’ gains on items related to warmup exercises are significantly greater than on items associated with additional traditional homework problems (Marrs, Blake, & Gavrin, 2003).