Active Learning

ABSTRACT

Create-Rank-Compete (CRC) is a teaching method designed to promote learner-to-learner,
learner-to-material, and learner-to-instructor engagement through asynchronous and synchronous
online interactions. The CRC method is rooted in the constructivism theory of learning; by design, it is a Bruner’s spiral that supports metacognitive skill development through problem posing and peer assessment activities. The method is implementable in both seated and remote courses. Periodically during a course, students are asked to create multiple choice questions based on the covered material; then they perform pairwise comparisons of the de-identified peers’ creations; from the ranked list of the questions, the instructor is able to track the class progress and use this student-generated content to compose quiz materials for testing and discussion. This paper details the CRC method and reports on its first implementation, which took place during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the semester when a large public university in the northeastern United States switched from live to online teaching. Students engaged with the CRC activities two times more than required, and reported high enjoyment and knowledge acquisition value delivered by the method.