NETsavvy: Clickers

What is it, in a nutshell?

Clickers are small, handheld units that are intended to increase student participation and engagement in class by allowing students to easily (and anonymously) respond to an instructor's multiple-choice questions; these responses are instantly tabulated so that the instructor, and potentially the students, can see the results.

Background

Clickers were invented in the late 1980s, but they did not begin to become widespread until the late 1990s, when large screen projectors became more common in university classrooms. Many people were first introduced to clickers on the popular televison show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," in which a contestant had the opportunity to poll the audience, who keyed in their response using a clicker-like device. Clickers are also known as Personal Response Systems (PRS), Audience Response Systems (ARS), and Classroom Response Systems (CRS).

Specific types or brands

Major brands include Turning Point, eInstruction, iClicker, and Interwrite. This PDF provides a thumbnail description (and photo) of each of these four brands, and this report, from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, tallies up the advantages, disadvantages, and features of each brand.

Functionality

Classroom Response Systems were invented in the late 1980's as a way to increase student participation in class. A CRS is a small network (radio frequency, infrared, or wired) for an individual classroom. It is comprised of three, sometimes four elements: A computer with a projection device, student transmitter units, a receiver unit, and sometimes an instructor unit. The computer runs a software package that processes and displays the student feedback as it comes into the receiver. Students use this system to give immediate feedback to questions posed by the instructor. Classroom Response Systems use grew slowly through the early 1990s. However, the widespread use of presentation software and projectors in classrooms in the late 1990's created an environment for their increased use. Today's Classroom Response Systems offer the advantages of Radio Frequency (RF) technology, such as faster transmission of answers, two-way communication between the instructor receiver and student remote, and greater portability.

Impact on teaching

Clickers allow an instructor to gauge how well students have mastered the material in question: they provide an instant snapshot of whether the students are “getting it,” so that an instructor is better able to determine whether he or she can move on to the next unit or needs to revisit the current unit. Instructors should realize, though, that clickers should not be used as a mere “add- on,” but rather that their use needs to be thoughtfully integrated into every class.

Impact on learning

Recent studies have indicated that clickers, when used effectively, can have the following positive impacts:

  1. Increased student engagement. Kaleta (2007) reports that "Faculty agreed or strongly agreed that there was greater student engagement (94%), participation (87%), and interaction (68%) in class as a result of clicker use. … The majority of students also agreed or strongly agreed that the use of clickers made them feel more engaged (69%) in class, increased participation (70%), and helped them pay attention (67%).
  2. Improved class attendance. Caldwell (2007) reports that “when clicker scores accounted for 15% or more of the course grade, attendance rose to 80-90%.”
  3. Diminished attrition. Caldwell (2007) reports that clickers reduced end-of-term attrition from 8-12% to about 4%.
  4. Improved learning outcomes. Caldwell (2007) reports that "Most reviews agree that ‘ample converging evidence’ suggests that clickers generally cause improved student outcomes such as improved exam scores or passing rates, student comprehension, and learning and that students like clickers." Kaleta (2007) reports that “The statistical analyses of grade data collected for the 11 parallel courses between fall 2004 and fall 2005 showed a statistically significant impact of clicker use on student performance.... There was an increase of 2.23% in the number of students obtaining a grade of C or better in the courses that used clickers.” Fies (2006) reports that “There is great agreement that CRSs [clickers] promote learning when coupled with appropriate pedagogical methodologies.... The literature also indicates that CRS-supported environment lead to greater learning gains than traditional learning environments.”

Accessibility issues

The UW Office for Persons with Disabilities has indicated that a clicker without a display, and with large and tactile buttons, is preferable. They caution that besides vision issues, there are also cognitive concerns, especially for timed questions for which marks are associated, where using clickers may increase anxiety for those students with certain learning disabilities or where English is a second language.

Best practices

    1. Explain to your students why you are having them use clickers. Some students will have already used clickers in other classes, but some won't. You need to persuade them of the benefits of clickers (specifically, their increased engagement, and your heightened ability as the instructor to assess where they are at in terms of understanding a unit of material), in order to get them on side. They, after all, are the ones paying for the clickers, so they need to know what benefit they will derive from them.
    2. Develop effective clicker questions. This in turn means that you need to know why you are using the clickers. For example, when you are using clickers to discern whether students have understood a unit of material, you might want to pose fairly straightforward or "fact-based" questions, ones that will really reveal whether they have "got it." On the other hand, when you are using clickers to foster increased engagement, you probably want to pose questions that are at the "edges" of what you have covered in class, in order to get them to speculate and to push themselves beyond what they already know. Such questions should probably be more abstract, more conceptual, and even more ambiguous than the questions that you pose to merely assess whether they are "getting it." See  "Designing effective questions for classroom response system teaching." (2006) Ian D. Beatty, William J. Gerace, William J. Leonard, and Robert J. Dufresne. American Journal of Physics, V. 74, N. 1, pp. 31-39.
    3. Don't use clickers for high-stakes assessment such as mid-terms. Doing so will merely increase the likelihood of academic dishonesty, such as students peering at one another's clicker buttons, students collecting their friends' clickers and answering on their behalf, and so on.
    4. Don't use clickers to simply take attendance. Students will resent having to pay money for a device that merely helps to monitor them. Use clickers consistently. Doing so will help integrate the clickers into your course, so that they seem central to it rather than a mere add-on. Three or four clicker questions per contact hour might be a reasonable rule of thumb.
    5. Do allow clickers to transform your teaching. Many instructors have found that clickers have helped them shift from a "sage on the stage" approach to a "guide by the side" approach; that is, class time becomes more of a time for discussion and less a time to deliver a lecture. An instructor might, for example, assign a reading in place of a lecture; at the beginning of the next class, the instructor might then test the students on the assigned reading (to ensure that have completed it); class time can then be devoted to discussion, with the discussion being fed by clicker questions and answers.

Hardware and software requirements

The hardware includes the clickers, which are purchased by the students from UW's bookstore, and the receiver/transmitter, which can be obtained through the CTE Liaisons. The receiver transmitter is a small device, usually about as big as a softcover book. The required software comes with the receiver/transmitter, and can be installed on a PC or laptop, or (depending on the kind of clicker) run directly from a USB key. No other hardware or software is needed, though many instructors do use the clicker system in tandem with PowerPoint (i.e. The PowerPoint slides are used to display the clicker questions).

Support and training

The iClicker hardware and software are being installed in the UW e-classrooms as required. If you need or want to run the software on your laptop, it's fairly easy to install. With the iClicker, a practiced user can set up the system in about two minutes. If you are interested in having your students use the iClicker, please contact your Faculty Liaison in the Centre for Teaching Excellence. Your Liaison will guide you through the process of ordering iClickers from the UW Bookstore, help you to set up the iClicker system, and offer advice on creating effective clicker questions.

Financial cost

Typically, instructors do not need to pay anything to start using clickers in their classes. The clicker units themselves are purchased by the students (usually at a cost of $35 or so, depending on the kind of clicker), and the clicker company supplies the software and receiver/transmitter (at least in situations where a large number of students -- say 80 or more) are purchasing clickers.

Current usage at UW

Because some brands of clickers (such as the iClicker) can be re-used by a student from term to term, or even used (legitimately) by several different students in the same term, it's difficult to determine the exact number of clickers that are in use at any one time. Likely, however, at University of Wateloo there are probably about 3000 students using clickers in any given term, spread among 10 to 15 instructors. Instructors who are using it at UW include Bob Sproule (Accounting and Finance), Carey Bissonnette (Chemistry), and Steve Forsey (Chemistry).

Current usage elsewhere

Clickers are being used by instructors at almost every university in North America. Just one of the clicker companies (CPS) reports that its clickers are being used at more than 800 institutions in North America. Another clicker company (iClicker) reports that its device is used in 550 institutions.

More information

Implementability

Where 1 = very easy and 5 = very challenging: 2

The bottom line:

Clickers can be implemented into a course quite easily with no cost to the instructor and minimal cost to the students. When used effectively -- that is, according to best practices -- clickers can help students stay engaged and help instructors stay informed of whether their students are understanding the material or not.