Create-Rank-Compete (CRC) Crowdlearning - A teaching method for online engagement

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào

Create-Rank-Compete (CRC) is a teaching method that increases learner-to-learner, learner-to-material, and learner-to-instructor engagement through asynchronous and synchronous online interactions. Grounded in constructivism, it follows a spiral design that builds metacognitive skills via problem posing and peer assessment. During instruction, students create multiple-choice questions, compare de-identified peer questions, and rank them. Instructors track progress and convert student outputs into quizzes and discussions, with successful early implementation during early Covid-19 remote teaching.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages32

Reading Time1 h 21 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Three CRC phases

Iterative social-constructivism process

CRC origins in Crowdlearning

First implementation and refinement cycles

| | Ad | vances in Engineering Edu | cation | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2023: VOLUME 11 ISSUE 2 DOI: 10. 18260/3-1-1153-36043 Create-Rank-Compete Crowdlearning COURTNEY J. BURRIS ALEXANDER NIKOLAEV HIMANGSHU PAUL AND LAN PENG Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 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. Key words: Active Learning, Engagement, Peer Review INTRODUCTION Online learning communities are changing with the advance of technology, growing number of students, and, as of late, the Covid-19 pandemic. This produces a need for more intelligent, interactive systems that can handle massive learning needs whilst ensuring quality and reliability within the system. 34 2023: VOLUME 11 ISSUE 2 ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION Create-Rank-Compete Crowdlearning In March of 2020 many colleges and universities were forced to close their doors for more than a year and switch to distance learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Synchronous and asynchronous teaching methods were adopted at large in a haste so as not to halt the courses which were already in full swing. One popular tool for synchronous learning is Zoom videoconferencing: it features a virtual board, screen sharing and breakout rooms capabilities, which allow students and instructors to communicate and engage. However, an upturn in “Zoom fatigue” signals that video conferencing tools are becoming taxing to students (Morris 2020) . This brings to the forefront the challenges to overcome for asynchronous learning to be successful: (1) the need to promote engagement, especially in the mixed offline/online mode of learning, and (2) the need for creative practices to spark just-in-time feedback exchange between the students and instructor. There is a high demand for effective online teaching methods — to be put to practice in a stand-alone format or become an engagement-promoting course component — which can be implemented in small and large virtual class settings. We present Create-Rank-Compete (CRC)— a teaching method comprising three phases. The CRC question creation phase prompts students to generate questions pertaining to the recent class’material, increasing their engagement with this material. The CRC question ranking phase tasks students with conducting pairwise comparisons of peers’ questions, increasing both their engagement with material and each other. The CRC quiz competition phase uses a gamified quiz that ranks participants by performance to provide students with formative feedback on their understanding of course material whilst facilitating a structured live review of said material. The key premise of CRC is to use alternativ

FAQs

What are the three phases of the Create-Rank-Compete (CRC) method?

CRC consists of question creation, question ranking through pairwise peer comparisons, and a quiz competition phase that gamifies performance for structured review and formative feedback.

How does CRC support metacognitive skill development?

CRC is rooted in constructivism and designed as a spiral, using problem posing and peer assessment activities to build learners’ metacognitive skills.

When was CRC first implemented and what outcome was reported?

The first implementation occurred in Spring 2020, before full distance learning. Students engaged with CRC activities twice as much as required and reported high enjoyment and knowledge acquisition value.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Đào