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Questionator™

Questionator™, or The Questionator™, is a collaboration tool which is used to teach the value of asking questions. Version 1.0 is designed for use in K12 through college level classrooms and computer labs. The teacher or facilitator asks students to enter a question about the topic at hand, and then the application displays selected questions anonymously to the entire class for discussion. Experience shows that many students are reluctant to ask questions in class due to shyness or the potential for embarrassment. The Questionator™ combines face-to-face interactions with computer-mediated ones, allowing for flexibility in its use. Version 1.0 includes a feature allowing the class to “vote” on or evaluate questions along several parameters using a several scales or to use the same feature to conduct instant polls.

The need for the Questionator became apparent through the teaching and research in the field of Medical Ignorance, led by Marlys Witte, M.D. at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. The first description and flow chart for Questionator V.1.0 was developed in October of 2004 by Michael Branch in the Division of Biomedical Communications at the University of Arizona. Other contributors to the development of The Questionator™ are Peter Crown, Ph.D., Michael Bernas, M.S., John Hall, Ph.D. and Clay Lewis and Peter Crown, Ph.D.

Original description of the Questionator:

Summary

The Questionator is an interactive forum where students can gather together to interact and challenge each other to ask thoughtful questions about a subject. Goals

- To get students to ask questions about a subject - To encourage thoughtful questioning - To encourage participation and interaction between students - To provide an incentive for thoughtful questions and participation - To allow students to evaluate questions in a positive, non-competitive manner.

Process

1. A topic of interest is provided to the participants. 2. Students are either divided into teams or work individually. 3. In the first round, students come up with questions about the topic, and submit them into the Questionator. 4. After students have submitted their questions, the forum allows them to anonymously see other students’ questions. 5. The students rate other questions in different categories in an analog, non-numerical way (like a horizontal slider). The amount of moderating that any one student or team can distribute is limited: i.e. they can distribute all their moderation points to one question they really like (therefore boosting it’s overall rating significantly), or they can distribute their moderation points to several questions and affect multiple questions less dramatically. 6. Some of the categories to rate would be societal, biological, clinical – allowing students to decide which category they think the question fits in best. There would be multiple rounds of questioning, allowing a moderator to challenge the students to expand on the best questions from the previous round or simply ask more questions that haven’t been asked yet.

Incentive could also be offered to the team or student with the highest rated question(s) by having their question answered by an famous expert on the topic. A moderator could also participate, but such participation is optional. A moderator would have the ability to remove questions, or rate questions without a moderation point limit.

Interface

The interface will allow students to enter questions, rate questions, and see a hierarchy all submitted questions based on peer ratings during a specific round. The interface could be toggled between an anonymous mode and a revealed mode. In the anonymous mode, the identities of the teams or students would be hidden, and only revealed in the end. Revealed mode would identify the question posers through the whole interaction.

Current Status

The first version of the Questionator is now completed. Currently the project staff is evaluating its effectiveness, usefulness and ease of use. Although it may sound self-congratulatory, we were surprised with the enthusiasm of the participants and that has enhanced our efforts to refine the Questionator and make it publicly available for use in schools nationwide.

Related links:

[1]http://www.medicalignorance.org [2]http://www.medicine.arizona.edu/ignorance/ [3]http://www.ignorance.medicine.arizona.edu/vint/index.htm