The Use of an Electronic Voting System in a Formal Methods Course Alice Miller and Quintin Cutts Department of Computing Science University of Glasgow

MRS4 Study of reactive, and distributed systems; concepts of concurrency and communication that arise in such systems; - signalling, - control - associated modelling issues focuses on use of SPIN model checker consists of 20 lectures and (  10) 1 hr labs

Identified problems with lecture+lab: Students unlikely to reflect on practical experience and relate to other formalisms Mathematical nature of course does not promote interaction Questions viewed as having only one answer Students often don’t bother showing up to labs

The solution Introduced tutorial-based session using electronic voting system (EVS) to –Encourage participation in lab sessions prior to tutorial –Affect self-learning via reading of prescribed text –Promote reflection and an appreciation that issues not always black and white

EVS: Electronic Voting System

Questions 1-5 are assessed, questions 6-8 are not. 1.In SPIN, what can be passed as parameters to processes? (a)global variables and constants (b)constants and channel names (c) channel names and global variables Sample questions based on lab question 80% correct Encouraged students

4.One of the following statements about the temporal logics CTL and LTL is true. Which is it? (a)CTL is much more expressive (b)the expressiveness of the two logics do not overlap (c)LTL is more suitable for “on the fly” verification Based on text material 75% correct CTL not mentioned up to this point in lectures Could refer to it later on

6.What do you think of the statement ``SPIN allows us to accurately model synchronous communication'' (a)the statement is true (b)the statement is false (c)The statement is not exactly true, but it is close enough.

Lively discussion Split into buzz groups, asked to provide examples of synchronous/asynchronous systems Generally difficult to decide

7.Some real world examples of protocols (e.g. IEEE , FireWire, bluetooth device discovery) include some notion of randomness and probability. However Gerard Holzmann does not believe that the addition of probabilities to SPIN is necessary. Do you: (a)agree (b)disagree (c)neither agree nor disagree (i.e. you have a better solution..)

Half and half Buzz groups for 5 minutes 2 advocates chosen, to argue the point Only a few had heard of prism, seemed interested

Outcomes Reassurance students had read text Noticeable increase in student confidence in subsequent lectures EVS popular –way to communicate anonymously –Provided immediate feedback High level of discussion