Effect of Periodic sTiGD Activity on Long-Term Performance in System Programming Course

Teaching strategies that involve periodic formative assessment and group discussion have been established to be effective for students´ conceptual understanding. While these practices are not new, they are not commonly used in the typical Indian university context. Reasons include a lack of formal training in research-based training practices, lack of technological resources and a culture where lecturing is the norm. In the current study, we adapt effective teaching techniques from education research with the goal of improving students´ conceptual understanding, while at the same time making sure that these techniques are easily implement able in a lecture-based class by instructors without formal training in educational research. We implement a combination of periodic short objective tests, followed by immediate group discussion and feedback, in a Systems Programming course. Using a two group experimental design, we show that students´ performance improved in written and oral exams and on aptitude tests on the topics.