Clicker Pilot Program Continues
ISS Newsletter, April 2006
Note: Classroom Technology Services (CTS) and the Teaching & Learning Technology Centers (TLTC) are now part of UITS.
Instructors throughout campus are taking part in the pilot program IU has established with eInstruction Corporation to facilitate the use of the eInstruction Classroom Performance System rf on any IU campus. This agreement provides instructors with the ability to use a student response system, popularly known as a “clicker,” in any of their courses. The eInstruction Classroom Performance System rf (CPSrf) consists of a radio frequency receiver connected to a computer (either Windows or Mac), response pads (“clickers”) owned and registered by students, and a software package that allows an instructor to ask questions and gather responses from students.
Typically, an instructor poses a question or problem to the class, students enter their answers into their clickers and the answers are summarized and displayed on the computer screen (and with a projector, to the entire class). For more information go to www.eInstruction.com and select Higher Education.
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| Students in Harold Ogren and John Beggs’ P201 General Physics 1 course use their clickers to solve a sample problem in class. |
Professor Harold Ogren and Assistant Professor John Beggs use clickers in their team-taught P201 General Physics 1 course to administer short bonus quizzes covering material from that day’s lecture or a recent lecture. “For example,” Beggs explains, “we might ask something like ‘A 2 kg mass is dropped from a height of 15 meters. Assuming no air resistance, what is its speed when it hits the ground?’”
After students respond and a projected histogram shows the correct answer, and the distribution of student answers, Ogren and Beggs can tell immediately if most of the students got it right or not. “If they didn’t, we then have the opportunity to go back and review a concept that they may not have understood,” Beggs says.
Students receive one point for attendance and an additional bonus point if they answer the quiz question correctly. “We have seen a dramatic improvement in our attendance from last year,” Beggs observes.
“There are a few technical problems with the clickers—some students have dead batteries, some clickers malfunction, and some times the professors (me!) have made mistakes with the software settings,” he adds. “But overall, I think it is a great system and I am really glad that Harold took the time to set it up.”
Associate Professor of English John Schilb has been using clickers this spring in the Tuesday/Thursday lecture portions of L142 Introduction to Writing and The Study of Literature (special topic: Genres in Literature, Film, and Everyday Life). The class enrolls 140 students, and four AIs assist Schilb.
“Initially, I was fearful of using clickers, because I’m not very technology-minded,” Schilb says. “But, with the encouragement of the four AIs and Classroom Technology Services, I took the plunge. I’m glad: getting reasonably adept with this technology didn’t take as long as I’d anticipated, and it certainly makes for a more interactive lecture class.”
At various points in the lecture, Schilb poses analytical or interpretive questions to the students, such as, “To what extent do you sympathize with the title character in the film Carrie?” Students submit multiple choice (including yes/no, true/false) answers via their clickers, and the results are projected on a screen.
“We consider it vital to have students then discuss the voting results with one another,” Schilb adds. “That is, we see the clicker results as a prompt for continued deliberation, not as ends in themselves. In fact, sometimes we’ve asked the same question again after students have discussed the previous votes, in an effort to see if minds have been significantly changed. I must acknowledge that the clickers have also been great for taking attendance. But the main value of the clickers has been their kindling of interpretive activity—the sort of work that humanities classes are all about.”
For more information about using clickers in the classroom, contact Kathryn Propst at TLTC, 855-7829, kpropst@indiana.edu.
