Audience Response Systems and Their Effect on the Classroom Adrian Readmond Mietus, Siti Kamarudin, Steven Lee What is a Clicker? A clicker is a small gadget that acts as a transmitter. It is usually used to gather responses from a large audience or groups of people. In the U.S. this technology is called as either ‘clickers’ or ‘keypads’, but in the UK they are called ‘zappers’ and handsets. Despite the differences in names, they generally work using the same principle. Clickers in the Education Scene Imitating the popular game show ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire”, the handheld gadget is used by instructors nationwide as a ‘classroom response system’. The way this system works is that the instructors will pop an average of 2 – 5 questions in-between their 50-minute lecture, and the students will then respond by ‘clicking in’ their answers using their own clickers. The software used along with the clickers generally need only intermediate level of computer skill, so educators can focus more on teaching rather than the ‘technical stuff’. Attendance Students who used clickers for attendance went to class more often than students who had to take quizzes for attendance. With clickers, attendance was more uniform and higher. Figure 1. Purple bars represent attendance taken with quizzes, yellow bars represent attendance taken with clickers References Caldwell, E., Jane, et al., (2007), Clickers in the Large Classroom: Current Research and Best-Practice Tips Retrieved from Hecht, Silke, et al., (2012), Student Performance and Course Evaluations Before and After Use of the Classroom Performance System TM in a Third-Year Veterinary Radiology Course, Retrieved from Perez, K. E., Strauss, E. A., Downey, N., Galbraith, A., Jeanne, R., & Cooper, S. (2010). Does Displaying the Class Results Affect Student Discussion during Peer Instruction? CBE Life Sciences Education, 9(2), 133–140. doi: /cbe Patterson, Barbara, et al., (December 3 rd, 2009), Evidence for Teaching Practice: The Impact of Clickers in a Large Classroom Environment, Retrieved from Grades The class with clickers had higher average scores than the class without clickers. Figure used clickers, did not use clickers Figure 3. Table which shows grades with and without clickers Conclusions Clickers have been stated multiple times to be a helpful learning tool for many types of classes, especially towards science classes. The clickers improve grades, attendance, and improves the class environment through peer discussion. Students tend to pay attention in class in order to correctly answer the clicker questions. Previewing Answers with Clickers Students who saw the class answers before discussion were likely to follow the most popular answer, this can be avoided by hiding the answers. Figure 4. Displays differences between groups who saw the class responses and groups who did not Figure 5. Graph of student’s responses to their experiences with clickers Student’s Responses to Clickers A large majority of the class responded positively towards clickers. Only a few responded negatively, which implies that clickers allow for a fun and productive learning experience. SC 297C Section 2