Hacker News Reader

Comment by liamk | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for the feedback! In large classes students tend to be reluctant to raise their hands (especially in classes with 200+ students). ESL students are also unlikely to raise their hand and say they don't get it. I actually tested the app in 3 first year classes and it didn't seem to be distracting.

I'm hoping to add a feature for leaving feedback at the end of a lecture, great idea!

Also great idea on the Occupy Wall Street idea!

View on HN

I go to a small college where average class size is around 20 students. People hardly ever raise their hand.

Overwhelming majority of students are deathly afraid of looking like an idiot by raising their hand. It happens everywhere, not just large classrooms.

I think this is a great idea.

I went to a small college too... In a class of 10-20, it was pretty easy for the professors to know when we were confused since she was looking at each of us.

Exactly right. I teach at a uni in South Korea. Students who never lived/traveled outside the country will never, ever raise their hands if they don't understand. Not only that, but if you ask them outright, they will nod and say clearly, "yes, I understand", and then turn to their best friends and say in Korean, "I actually don't understand any of it".

This app would be a tremendous help not just to my classes (I've been here a long while, and know how to read the signs of confusion & check understanding), but also to the classes of newbies in Korea.

New teachers here sometimes go for months naively asking students "do you understand this stuff" and believing it to be true.

If Koreans could vote on this anonymously, I think they would actually do that at every opportunity.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com