Digital Spinning Wheel for Just-a-Minute Session: A Pedagogical and Assessment Tool

Abstract

In the present digital era, technology is being extensively used as an aid to teach different skills in a language teaching course. With the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, where technology that was being used for peripheral tasks and activities in education so far, has now become pervasive in the learning spaces. Tech aids such as audio, video, internet, educational tools, etc. are the popular ones among teachers at all levels. The present study aims to explore the use of one such tool - Digital Spinning Wheel that has been used as a tool for conducting Just-a- Minute sessions in the Effective Public Speaking course being offered at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, one of the premier engineering institutes of India. The study also makes an attempt to understand students' perceptions about the appropriacy of the choice of the tool and the effectiveness of the instructional tool as used by the course instructors. For the study, a questionnaire was designed and circulated through Google Form among all the students of the course. The findings of the study suggest that the Digital Spinning Wheel makes the classroom activity interesting and dynamic and also ensures objectivity and fairness during the conduction of the evaluative component, Just-a-Minute.