Our Guest Post today is from Phillip Flamm, who is an Instructor in the ISQS Dept. of the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. His earlier Guest Post talked about teaching large OM sections.
I began my affair with personal response system clickers in 2004. I teach large sections (300- 400 students) of Intro to OM. The most serious problems I faced were getting the students to come to class and once they were there, keeping them engaged. At that time “clickers” were just starting to be noticed in higher education. I had what I thought at the time was a great idea: require the students to have clickers for answering questions in class. This was what I call the “Ugly” period. The first devices used microwave signals. Students complained about the prices ($40) and when 300 students all sent answers in at the same time about half of them weren’t recorded. As a result, I decided to use the system for extra credit only.
The next 3 years ushered in what I call the “bad” period . Microwave signals were replaced with radio frequency signals. Now all signals were received, but the new devices were still expensive and were very easily damaged. Batteries lasted about two weeks. I was swamped with complaints.
In 2010 the “good” era began. Clickers were dependable, albeit pricey. Fortunately, Texas Tech had adopted Turning Point as a campus-wide vendor and used clickers became available at every book store. But tracking results required downloading an Excel spreadsheet after class on a memory stick and transferring it to my office computer for totaling semester extra credit results.
Will 2011 be the beginning of the “great” era? Software is now available that allows students to use a clicker, a cell phone, or a laptop to answer questions. This should be an improvement depending upon whether it is actually easier to collect and summarize data. I’m switching to Turning Point Response Ware . From my experience I can tell you that use of clickers does provide the following advantages:
- Refocuses the students’ attention (4 to 5 questions per lecture)
- Allows for collaborative learning
- Reinforces key points that may be exam questions (if students don’t get the correct answer I back track to bolster understanding).
- Can be an excellent method of substantiating assessment for accreditation purposes.
Happy clicking!