Enhancing laboratory teaching in higher education environment using web-based formative colloquiums

The web application Pitalica has been developed in order to improve the science laboratory teaching process. The idea was to develop a teaching tool which would enable to perform colloquiums for all students during each practical of the physics course at biomedical university study programs. It is the attempt to motivate students to prepare better for each practical which would hopefully lead to a better final exam performance. Also, the colloquium results provide the immediate feedback to the teacher and to the student of the level of understanding, possible pitfalls and show the direction for further study. The paper will discuss this project of formative assessment using the web-based application in laboratory teaching. The results of the final practical exam collected during the three-years period without performing web-based colloquiums have been compared to the final practical exam results during the two-year period with performing web-based colloquium at the beginning of each practical. Also, a survey has been conducted, questioning self perceived ease of use, colloquium preferences, motivation for better preparation, the adequacy of time available for performing the practice and colloquium, competences acquired and ICT literacy.