“Clickers lead to teachable moments in the classroom.”
That’s part of what Linda Walter and Jean Rokos have to say about clickers. Linda is in her fourth year and Jean is in her first year of using clickers in the classroom.
The benefits they see to students:
- Improved attention through physical and mental interaction.
- “Wakes them up from that glassy eyed stare.”
- Assists students through a tough lecture.
- The instructor knows what wasn’t understood, and they can go back and re-address missed concepts.
- Allows an instructor the,”do you understand now?”, check.
- Helps with test review.
- Students can identify where they should focus study time.
That is…when you can get the clickers in the students hands.
Students don’t seem to be purchasing clickers this year. Linda says in the beginning she had 100% participation, but this year that number has dropped to 50%. That makes some of the benefits only available for those who have purchased clickers, or allowing the students to use the clickers in groups. It doesn’t seem to be a lack of interest in using the clickers, students are quick to want to use a couple of spares that are available – but not enough to purchase the clickers. Linda and Jean also seem to be experiencing issues with students using old text books or not purchasing text books.
What is your experience? Are you seeing this in your classes too?
Interested in trying out clickers in your classroom?
Educational Media Technologies has a set of clickers you can try out in your class. You can request our set through media requests.
Using the Turning Technologies Audience Response System, or clickers, at NMC is fairly painless to the instructor. The development software is free to download, so you can create your slides at home, at the office, or anywhere in-between. The question slides can be inserted into existing PowerPoint presentations, thus integrating with your already existing course materials. To use the system in the classroom, Educational Media Technologies provides a receiver to the instructor, and instructor then adds the student clickers to the course materials list (similar to how you add your text book).
Clickers are sold new and used at the NMC bookstore, and a student buy back is available. Costs from this Fall were:
- New: $47.35
- Used: $43.00
- Buy Back: $20.00
For more information on how to use Clickers please contact EMT.
If you have a clicker experience to share please let us know or comment below.
I have been using clickers since January of 2005 in anatomy and physiology as well my introductory biology classes. I do similar exercises as Linda an Jean. I require clickers the same as a text book. The first day of class most students will have them, but a few are waiting to see if they are “really” required. My “carrot” is using them for one group quiz before each hour exam, my “stick”. Without the device the student stands to lose 10% of the exam points. As A&P is a high stakes course, everyone has one by the second or third meeting.
I agree with all of the benefits listed by Jean and Linda plus one more:
I automatically get a record of every response a student enters. That means I have a record of attendance as well as the number of correct and incorrect responses to each questions. With this information I can zero in on the areas where the student is having their greatest challenges. We can build a customized study plan to address these areas in time to make changes before graded assessments. Admittedly they don’t save everyone, but the first semester I used them I did document an increase of 10% overall in grade points as well as success rates. On the “fuzzy” side, class is more fun for all of us. Clicker questions stimulate high quality discussion on some very complex topics as well as help me improve my exam questions and group projects.