A similar tool for assessing student performance is known as the exit card. A student is asked a question, or a short series of questions, at the end of the class and must submit their response on a card or slip of paper before they walk out the door. Even if the item is not identified by individual student, a quick sorting of correct and incorrect answers can give good feedback to an instructor on how well the current topic was addressed in class. A more comprehensive look can identify where the misconceptions may lie.
As an example question, consider asking the class the following:
A programmer designs a code segment to count every order from a department store that was either a sale item or was located on the main aisle of the store. Identify the logical error that the programmer made in the following piece of code.
# assume that storeData is a collection of purchases with Boolean attributes "onMainAisle" and "saleItem", amongst others
count = 0
for d in storeData:
if d.onMainAisle == True:
if d.saleItem == True:
count = count + 1
Receiving responses to this question which are blank tells you that the student might not yet feel comfortable tracing through code. Other responses that state that there is no logical error can help you identify those students that can’t yet relate nested if statements to the “AND” relationship.
Considering modern technology for taking class polls and incorporating a student’s cell phone or school-approved device simplifies this process to an even greater degree.
