New classroom technology just a click away
by Jessica Gillies
Professors know it's not always easy keeping distracted students in a large class engaged in lectures. But what if there was a way to encourage student participation, give feedback to instructors, and enrich the learning experience all at once?
In the near future, there just may be.
Personal response systems—also known as classroom performance systems or "clickers"—are making their way onto the University of Victoria campus. The clickers look like TV remote controls and allow students to immediately and anonymously respond to questions asked by a professor.
"The technology has been around since the 1980s," says Mary
Sanseverino, a computer science instructor and associate director of information technology development at the learning and teaching centre. "But since the advent of wireless standards, it's getting cheaper and more manageable."
Student responses are sent from the clickers to a receiver that connects to the instructor's computer, allowing access to student answers.
Sanseverino is heading a group of instructors—including Drs. Penny Codding (chemistry), Sara Ellison (physics), and Rosaline Canessa (geography)— in a study on the effectiveness of clickers in large first-year classes.
There are many possible applications for the clickers. Professors could use them to find out how well students understand the material at the end of a class. "I hate leaving a class and thinking, ‘How many students understood this?'" says Sanseverino.
With clickers, students can make their opinions heard—silently. The clickers can be registered so the professor can keep track of responses, but the students will never know how their peers are individually responding.
This anonymity has other advantages, especially for students who are reluctant to speak up in class for fear of being wrong. "It's always the same few students who answer questions," says Sanseverino. "This is an opportunity for everyone to contribute."
The clicker also has implications for participation marks, says Dr. Geri Van Gyn, director of the learning and teaching centre.
"A lot of professors try to give some marks for class participation, and it's almost impossible to do well, particularly in large classes. With the clickers, the instructor can look at how the students responded after the class and give feedback to the students individually. It's another way of communicating with students."
Currently, the clicker technology is being used in only a few classrooms across campus— Dr. Herbert Schuetze's first-year economics class, and Dr. Yin Lam's first-year anthropology class. Drs. Leslee Francis Pelton and Tim Pelton, both in curriculum and instruction, are using modified personal digital assistants (PDAs) as clickers that allow students to answer a wider variety of questions, such as mapping the slope of a line.
Clickers can range in price from $5 to $50 US, says Sanseverino, although there can be other costs to the student, such as registration. These costs vary by company.
Sanseverino stresses the importance of an early, unified decision on which type of clicker to recommend. The instructors doing the study will report their recommendations to the vice president academic.
"If we don't take the bull by the horns in January, I think the technology will be all over the map by September. Students will balk if they have to buy five clickers for five different classes. If they could use one clicker for all their classes, and students and professors can see the benefits, I think people will work with the technology."
Depending on the business model, some clickers can be sold back to the bookstore, similar to textbooks. For more information on the clicker technology at UVic, contact Sanseverino at 721-8753. |
