Muddiest Point

Muddiest Point is a technique used to determine which topic is the most unclear to students at the end of a presentation or lecture. The students are usually given the prompt: “What aspect of the lecture material is still unclear or confusing?”.

Based on the students’ responses, instructors can determine which topics to review for the class and how to align future content to students’ prior knowledge (Keeler and Koretsky 2016). Some instructors provide a review of the most cited unclear idea or topic at the beginning of the next class while others create short videos that go over the information and then add them to Canvas for students to review outside of class.

The muddiest points strategy can be adapted to work in most courses. For face-to-face courses, index cards or slips of paper can be given to students and used to answer the prompt. For online courses, students can respond to an anonymous survey posted in Canvas (or similar polling program). For large enrollment courses, consider setting up clicker questions or survey polls to determine which topic is the least understood by the students (King 2011).

When using technology to create the muddiest point question, it is best to convert the question to a multiple-choice answer with one of the answers listed as “Nothing is unclear” or a similar response and another option listed as “Other” with a text box for students to explain the area that is most difficult for them (King 2011). The use of multiple-choice questions for muddiest points allows answers to be analyzed quickly and, if desired, displayed to the class. It is recommended to use muddiest points weekly (instead of at the end of each class) as student’s responses become less helpful if the strategy is overused (Keeler and Koretsky 2016).

This page was authored by Michele Larson and last updated May 24, 2022