Simple Solutions for Complex Problems

During my Junior year at Berry College, I worked alongside my classmates to produce a tool that would increase the efficiency and quality of classroom learning.

The Problem: On a typical day of class in the Creative Technology program at Berry College, our professor would direct us through a design technique such as writing code, designing in CAD, drawing schematics, or designing a PCB. Students were expected to follow along, replicating the instruction of the professor on our own devices. This presented many challenges for students. As you might anticipate, our professors were far more skilled with the material than students, and moved very quickly through it. If one detail was missed while following the direction of the professor, students would not be able to keep up. This meant that any progress that was made on behalf of the student would immediately halt, and students would need to attend office hours to work through the remainder of the in-class activity. This severity of this issue impacted our professors too; more students showed up needing instruction than our professors were able to provide in an afternoon.

Design Thinking: Careful examination revealed that the ultimate flaw in this teaching method was a result of students not being able to work at their own pace. This only compounded when students fell behind; asking for help would diminish professors ability to present the material within the allotted classroom time. Since courses in Creative Technology were mostly curated from the knowledge and experience of our professors, appropriate resources were far less abundant to integrate a flipped classroom structure. As an alternative to a flipped classroom, we wanted to create a hybrid combining in-class instruction and problem solving.

The Solution: Using the limited skilled we had learned, we created extremely simple printed circuit boards that contained an Arduino ESP32, two pushbutton, resistors, an LED, and a port for a small rechargeable battery. These boards were assembled and placed inside custom 3D printed enclosures designed in Fusion360. Using this very simple hardware, we were able to program software that allowed our "controllers" to ping a server over wifi and log our controller "feedback" in a SQL database, which fed into a web-based interface that our professor could review in real time.

A New Class Structure: Rather than using valuable classroom time to lecture, our professors began recording lectures ahead of class and sharing them with students via YouTube. During the recorded lecture, there were periodic "Checkpoints" where students could give feedback with their controllers. When a student arrived to class, they would begin working through the pre-recorded lecture. This allowed students to work at their own pace, reducing the number of hangups overall. When students needed help, they could simply press the red button at the given lecture checkpoint. When students felt confident moving forward, they would press the green button. Using live data visualization, our professors could see the order of students needing help, and circulate the classroom to solve problems. After class, professors got a snapshot of the progress the class has made overall. This allowed professor to gain a deeper understanding of their own teaching efficacy, and know how to act accordingly.

Insights: When traditional instruction methods failed and created a complex problem in and out of the classroom, we used the skills we had to create a simple solution. We continued to use this classroom structure for the remainder of the semester, and iterated upon the software several times. In an amazingly short period of time, we were able to transition from a classroom setup where students fell behind to the extent that it was nearly impossible to catch up, to a setup where each individual student could succeed. The benefits didn't end there either, our professors were able to do their job more effectively and efficiently while reducing the stress levels of everyone involved. This project taught me that complex problems can often be solved through very simple solutions, such as a remote with only two buttons.