Carol Withey (a technophobe!) Text-please add entry to phonebook (polls) Smartphone/web- University of Greenwich EVS and mobile phones U

Polleverywhere.com ( based in USA) Why am I using them? No funding for clickers

Cost to students – depends on their text package – they are texting a UK number Car Students can also vote via web / Smartphone and Twitter and web widget ???? ( therefore remotely! ) It is possible to track individual responses ( either by mobile phone or by assigning a code/ number to each phone number)

How does it work? 1)Create a poll on the site 2)Download to PP then paste to presentation 3)You have to play the slide to initialise it (open it up) Go to site……….

Don’t forget: You can copy- paste this slide into other presentations, and move or resize the poll.

The system costs about £40 per month for up to 250 students – ‘roll on and off’ as and when you like Two people can use the system for that price (but can cheat with generic address) It is free for classes up to 30 (seminars) The company provide packages for HE

I used the system for 5 weeks in 2 hour Criminal Law lectures. (130 students ) Multi choice Qs 3 per week before /after break/end 15 minutes per week

Questionnaire feedback and analysis- I have put on the ESTICT website 79 responses 100% bring phone to University 67% - unlimited tariff

On cost of voting 67% - ‘excellent or good’ ( including 47% of those on limited tariffs) Another 28% of the total said reasonable Only 2 students said unreasonable

New research – phones v clickers (92 students) 1) Graphics – almost the same ( excellent/good) Phone has moving bars and response counter Clickers has response counter, timer and correct answer indicator 2) Time taken up – Phone 64% just right Clicker 86%just right ( clickers took up more time! However…. misconstrued question! (comments suggest referring to actual process of voting) I Did not use ‘keywords’ or get them to put number in phone!!

3) Time dedicated to EVS? 47% 15 mins 18% 20 mins 17% 10 mins 4) At what time in lecture? 61%at the end 39% various points

5) Experience? - (10 weeks in all) 44% Positive at first and became more positive 42% Positive at first and remained same level 1% Positive at first but became less positive 13% Not positive at first but became positive 0% Not positive at any stage 6) Leader boards? 55% Yes 45% No ( “too competitive / intimidating / embarrassing even though anonymous”)

7) Use to chart progress and monitor students? 31% - Yes 69% - No too serious too much pressure deter from answering demoralising wrong answers are made as ‘snap ‘ judgements intimidating this is what course work is for

8) Clickers arrangement? 66% attached to desk 29% give out each lesson 5% students look after for a deposit

9) Clickers or phones? 94% clickers 6% phones Reasons …………… Nearly all said because clicker quicker and easier to vote – but did not use keywords or store number Some said focusing more on texting the right number than looking at questions A few said the cost

My preference? - phones Cheaper than clickers Easy to set up a poll and download into PP It does not disrupt lectures (in 5 weeks there were no interruptions with phones going off) and less hassle/time Prefer live moving graphs Some of the clickers did not register Students are unlikely to forget their phones Fiddly saving data with clickers Remote voting All staff can use in seminars up to 30 User friendly support

Future? Further research when using both in same session Phones can be used for other purposes (induction)

Thanks for listening Car

The the stuff below is from the original presentation to TFS on mobile phones only

54% voted each time 83% voted all or some of the time 17% did not vote 87% on unlimited tariff ‘all or some’ of the time 73% on limited tariff ‘ all or some’ of the time

Reasons for not voting 13 (56%) said no signal – Orange 4 (17%) said cost 2 (8%) said they could not be bothered 1 student did not trust the site

On cost of voting 67% - ‘excellent or good’ ( including 47% of those on limited tariffs) Another 28% of the total said reasonable Only 2 students said unreasonable

On time taken up in the lecture 87% said ‘just right’ 9% said too much ( 1x disruptive,1 x wanted more time spent on the lecture, 4x said was a waste of time) 4% said not enough dedicated to EVS and asked for more questions

On benefit /non benefit to lecture experience ( open Q) 93 separate comments 23(25%) tested their understanding 18(20%) provided a break & variety in lecture 16 (17%) made the lectures more interactive 10 made the lectures interesting / fun 10 allowed revision of main points /clarification 4 helped maintain attention 3 allowed tutor to see students’ understanding 3 nice to see others did not understand 4 gave brain a ‘mini workout’ 1 allowed shy students to participate 1 concluded parts of the lecture nicely

There were 3 negative comments.. 2 said that it took up too much time 1 said it was disruptive

Benefit / dis-benefit specifically to understanding the subject/topic? ( open Q) 43% it showed them points they had understood and misunderstood 9 it made them think more deeply about what they had just been taught 2 said it was good to have communal /group learning 1 said that it gave them a sense of pride to see that they had understood There were 5 negative comments…… 2said that there was no real benefit 2said it was good but a shame that only limited amount of questions could be asked 1said that it made them lose concentration

On how many questions should be asked in each session 68% % 5 exactly 47% more than 5 On when should Qs be asked (open Q) 86% after the break 54% at the end of the lecture

On whether we should continue to use the system in Criminal Law 97% Yes On whether it should be used in other lectures / in seminars 91% Yes - other lectures 55% Yes - seminars

Would you prefer to be handed out ‘clickers’ Note: this a flawed question in as much as students have not experienced the clicker system yet 43 (54%)Prefer clickers 27 (34%)Prefer phones 9 (12%) Don’t mind The main reason give for clickers was that although they liked using phones they thought clickers might be best as some of their friends could not get reception

My observations Cheaper than clickers? Easy to set up a poll and download into power point It does not disrupt lectures Students are unlikely to forget their phones In the whole 5 weeks there were no interruptions !! I used PE for 5 weeks- students may lose enthusiasm as the year progresses Negative - reception in the lecture room ( QA080 – no orange – but KW315 –all had reception) I am conducting a comparative analysis of the feedback with use of ‘Turningpoint’ ( a clicker system)

Carol Withey Department of Law and Criminology University of Greenwich