Web-based classroom response systems take over the University

Have you heard the news? Clickers are out and web-based classroom response systems are in.

What is she on about (I hear you ponder)? Well, have you ever seen students using clickers to answer questions in a lecture theatre?

At UoG they’re usually small green handsets and they look like this:

They’re a clever bit of kit. They let the lecturer ask questions and the whole room gets to answer without anyone needing to say a word. This is particularly great in a full lecture theatre, or when students feel unsure or embarrassed. The responses are projected on-screen, usually as a bar chart.

Why is this clever (I hear you ask)? Because it lets each student know whether or not they’re understanding the material and if they’re getting things wrong, it lets them see how many of their peers are getting things right. Hopefully, this is motivating. It also lets the lecturer check that the students have grasped the complex stuff. If they (mostly) have, the lecturer can move on. If they haven’t, the lecturer can go back and try again.

Wait, (I hear you cry) if these clickers are so clever, why are we letting web-based classroom response systems take over? Well, it’s like this. The clickers break and they need batteries, and the batteries run out and need changed and there’s not much money kicking about. And, many students carry smart devices that can hook up to the free Wi-Fi. So, the smart folk in the Learning Technology Unit (well, Niall really) designed a system that uses smart-devices and Wi-Fi. It’s called YACRS, and it’s free and it lets you do the same as (and much much more than) the Clickers, but without the battery problem and it uses the smart-devices in the students’ pockets.

But, (I hear you yell) what if not all the students have smart devices (in their pockets)? Simple, ask them to share. Students do well when they get to check their understanding with a peer. And one peer can teach another and reinforce their own learning too. You’re going to give them the answer in the end anyway so it’s not as if they’re going to learn the wrong thing.

So, the next time you want to involve your students in the topic you’re lecturing about, check that they understand what you’re talking about and give them an opportunity to reflect on their learning, consider YACRS, and if you want to talk about it (I’ve used YACRS), drop me an email: Amanda.Sykes@glasgow.ac.uk

Image of Green Clicker set by Sarah Honeychurch shared under a CC-BY-SA-NC