DE Oracle @ UMUC

Student Response Systems - Part I

Linda Smelser

Instructional Support Specialist

Non UMUC

Published: May-June 2009

Category: » Online-pedagogy » Teaching-tools

What are Clickers?

Clickers are transmitter devices designed to support interactivity in face-to-face classes between faculty and students. The devices were designed to encourage students who attend especially large classes to participate when asked yes/no and multiple-choice questions. The devices tabulate the results via connection to the instructor’s laptop for instantaneous feedback to view later or to be shared immediately. Clickers allow for anonymous participation and add a game approach to the classroom environment (Martyn, 2007). The three types of clickers available on the market today are infrared (IR), radio frequency (RF), and WiFi wireless. The table below identifies the advantages/disadvantages of these types of systems and which companies currently provide them.

Table courtesy of University of Minnesota Student Response Systems Overview.

Purpose of Clickers

Early on, the purpose of clickers was promoted for active learning in the large classroom. However, clickers are now effectively being used for smaller audiences. In an article from CNET.com (Gilbert, 2005), Ann Auleb, an instructor who teaches the biology of human sexuality, notes how clickers have helped increase interactive communication in what can be a difficult subject matter for students to discuss in a classroom setting. The article also mentions that students who have grown up in the social networking and gaming environment find using the devices engaging because they are already comfortable communicating via technology. The devices have been used by instructors in conjunction with yes/no and multiple-choice questions to determine if students understand the subject matter. If the results show that students do not understand the material, instructors can respond immediately to the feedback.

Benefits and Challenges

An ECAR Research Bulletin by Beatty (2004) identifies some of the benefits and challenges of clickers as follows:

As described under benefits, clickers have the potential to promote better communication and understanding of content, concepts, and instructor perspective. The challenges of learning a new content delivery system encourage faculty to think outside the box, and students will experience new ways of engaging with the content, peers, and professor.

Pilots and Research

Many schools have conducted extensive research on the success, costs, and pedagogical best practices for using clickers. At the University of Wisconsin (UW), a number of faculty provided a list of pedagogical uses and general advice after using clickers in their classrooms. A faculty resource site developed by UW's Learning Technology Center, available at http://www4.uwm.edu/ltc/srs/faculty/index.cfm, includes a list of research articles, showcases of use by UW faculty, and clicker manuals. Below is the site's short list of effective pedagogical uses for clickers:

• Asking questions, discussing with peer(s), polling
• Assessing knowledge and/or concepts from current or previous lectures / courses
• Conducting opinion surveys (using anonymous mode)
• Converting case studies to clicker questions
• Collecting demographics to include major, career goals, math preparation
• Creating clicker slides for students to review and discuss presented materials

Key Questions

Are clickers a good solution for our students, faculty, and environment at UMUC? Beatty (2004) suggests asking the following questions to determine if clickers are right for an institution:

• Are clickers and associated pedagogic perspective and methods consistent with your institutional mission?
• Will students need to encounter clicker-style pedagogy and learning expectations consistently across courses or only in isolation?
• Will instructors be expected to master technical aspects of clicker use, create their own content, and refine their own pedagogy? Can institution-level support be provided?
• Will the fruits of one instructor’s work developing curriculum and pedagogy for a clicker course be preserved for gathering data for other courses?

Online Options

Other options for similar interactivity between students and instructors exist in the free Web 2.0 world. Twitter, for example, can be used for the same purpose as clickers. Demonstrated at the MDLA conference on March 5, 2009, Twitter is a social networking utility that offers at least two tools with capabilities similar to clickers: TwitterPoll provides immediate feedback to questions and quizzes, while TwitterFall allows immediate viewing of student comments as they “fall” one after another in succession. Results of these Twitter tools are immediately available for view via the Internet, and students can access Twitter from their laptops and PDAs.

Other options that can be designed to poll students online are QuizEgg, PollDaddy, and SurveyMonkey. Some of these tools, such as PollDaddy, are able to show immediate results to participants after they vote.

Students may already be familiar with Twitter and similar tools. However, the drawbacks with Web 2.0 tools can hinder academic use on a wider scale:

• Users need their own accounts.
• Communication is not secure or private.
• Rights, maintenance, and technical support are not controlled by the instructor.
• Outsiders (non-students) could potentially access the information and participate in real-time.

In spite of these drawbacks, Web 2.0 tools have a high potential for promoting interactivity online.

References

Beatty, I. (2004, February 3). Transforming Student Learning with Classroom Communication Systems. EDUCAUSE. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERB0403.pdf.

Gilbert, A. (2005, August 5). New for back-to-school: 'Clickers'. CNET News. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/New-for-back-to-school-Clickers/2100-1041_3-5819171.html.

Martyn, M. (2007). Clickers in the classroom: An active learning approach. EDUCAUSE Quarterly, (2), 71-74. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EQM0729.pdf.