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Electrical engineering Professor William Kaiser (left) uses a computer program he developed, whic

Think of all the “stupid” questions students never ask in class.

Now, imagine a tool that allows students to anonymously interact with their professors during class, so that there is no fear of a stupid question.

Electrical engineering Professor William Kaiser did just that, and then he developed that tool – Individualized Interactive Instruction, or 3I.

3I is a free software program that connects students to their professors via laptops equipped with wireless Internet connections.

Using the software, students solve problems and are also able to ask the professor questions, while the professor is able to monitor students’ keystrokes in real time.

This allows the instructor to pinpoint areas of deficiency for students, and offers an anonymous forum for students when they are stumped, which Kaiser and his students say enhances the learning environment.

3I is modeled after a similar program Kaiser has used during his weekly “town hall” office hours, which accommodate up to 50 students.

“I’ve always felt as a professor that I haven’t been able to act with a lot feedback,” Kaiser said. “For example, I might interpret a quiet group as bored, but it could be because I am going too fast in the lecture.”

On April 20, Kaiser was presented with the 2005 Brian P. Copenhaver award for faculty who promote innovation in teaching with technology.

Kaiser said the award should be shared with his associates who worked on and programmed 3I – Greg Chung, a senior research associate in the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing and engineering students Lawrence Au, Andre Encarnacao and Paul Espinosa.

Located at UCLA, the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing aims to improve the quality of eduction in the United States primarily by studying how students learn and educational testing methods.

Chung became involved in the development of 3I to study how students learn using the software and said 3I’s potential success lies in the simplicity of its design and ease of use.

“The technology is simple and it makes sense,” Chung said. “I think it will help support large classes where instruction is really lecture-based.”

In Kaiser’s Electrical Engineering 10 class last quarter, students used the Educational Testing Service’s Discourse, which is similar to 3I.

While Kaiser was pleased with the results of using Discourse, he said the software was expensive, and decided it would be best to develop his own version, which was made possible by funding and a donation of 90 laptops from Hewlett-Packard.

Kaiser said it was important for the software to be free and open-source, making code available to be modified to fit users’ needs. 3I is very similar to Discourse, but will cost nothing for other professors to use.

“We will be saving UCLA money by making it free,” said Encarnacao, a third-year computer science and engineering student.

Espinosa, also a third-year computer science and engineering student, said he looks forward to the implementation of 3I later this summer.

“Someday kids will be using this software and I’m looking forward to that,” Espinosa said. “I’ve told a few friends who may use it in class and they thought it was pretty cool.”

For the three students, designing 3I along with Kaiser was an invaluable experience. The students said they are gaining experience with something they eventually want to do for a living.

“It’s something that I’ve been waiting to do instead of doing homework assignments,” Espinosa said. “I get to do something that gets to be used in real life.”

The students lauded Kaiser as a progressive professor who has given them a great deal of freedom in designing the software.

“I had Kaiser as an undergraduate and now he’s my adviser – I’ve known him to always be very forward-thinking when it comes to technology,” said Au, a first-year electrical engineering graduate student.

Kaiser said his town hall meetings were not compulsory, but were well-attended. Kaiser said students seemed to appreciate that the software allowed for a level of anonymity, and this sentiment was echoed by students who attended the meetings.

“It allowed people to ask questions when they normally would keep silent, and allowed people to answer the problems posed without fear of embarrassment of giving a wrong answer,” said Adam Wright, a second-year computer science and engineering student who was in Kaiser’s class last quarter.

Wright said he believes that most university classes will use a system like 3I in the future, which is in line with Kaiser’s thinking.

Kaiser said 3I could easily be implemented not only in other engineering classes, but in many other disciplines, from mathematics to the social sciences.

“It’s not only the benefits for the students but there is a benefit for the instructor as far as reshaping the quality of the instruction,” Kaiser said. “Students might find that their professor is becoming more effective.”

Kaiser also said the system could eventually work on tablet computers or PDAs and did not rule out implementing text messaging with cell phones.

Chung conducted a survey of students who used Discourse and found that the software has had a positive impact on student learning, and showed that using the software in the town-hall setting proved to be more effective than one-on-one office hours.

“Instead of goofing off or reading the newspaper like they would in typical discussion sections, students are actually very engaged,” Chung said. “There is almost total silence in class.”