In the past, the author has occasionally used the WebCT course delivery system to administerquizzes to encourage students to read the text before lecture. These quizzes have focused on thehighlights of the material and were intended to encourage the student to come to class preparedfor the lecture. During the Spring 2004 offering of Engineering Economics at the University ofSan Diego this practice was modified to determine whether these pre-lecture quizzes affectedstudent learning.One half of the class completed the quizzes before hearing the lecture on the material. The otherhalf of the class completed the quizzes after hearing the lecture. Students also completed briefsurveys assessing how well they understood each lecture immediately after the lecture. In thispaper, the relationship between the timing of the quizzes and student perceptions of theirunderstanding of the lectures is explored. The effects of quiz timing and lecture comprehensionon homework and exam grades are also examined. The results of this work show that thestudents who read the text before the lecture tended to understand the lecture better than studentswho did not complete the reading assignments, and that they also performed better on exams andin the course.
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