Using Socrative as a Tool to Improve the Teaching-Learning Process in Higher Education

This study tested the software application Socrative, an online evaluation Student Response System (SRS) tool, in the subject of Statistics (degree of Biology). The main objective was to test whether its use improves both quantitative and qualitative results of students, and the efficiency of the teaching-learning process from the teacher's point of view. Two Socrative tests were carried out and 66 students from a Faculty of Biology at Madrid region participated being divided into two experimental and two control groups. Student's t-test for independent samples was used to analyse quantitative improvements in academic results. For qualitative aspects the Socrative assessment questionnaire for students, created by Wash, was applied. Moreover, a self-report questionnaire for teachers after using SRS tools, developed by Cheung et al., was administered and a semi-structured interview was conducted to analyse the teacher's perception about the influence of the intervention. Results proved inconclusive regarding improvements in academic performance, showing significant improvements for the experimental group of the first Socrative test, but not for the second. Furthermore, the use of Socrative gained a more active participation of the teacher in the teaching-learning process improving the classroom dynamics and increased additionally motivation and participation of students and their subjective perception of learning more and in a simpler way.