Clickers:

Instant assessment for the classroom

Clickers

• Electronic devices that look like remote controls

• Uses:– Interactive lectures– Assessment & evaluation– Keeping students awake!

Capabilities• The clicker shown on the previous slide uses an RF

signal to communicate with a device attached to the instructor’s computer

• Using the RF clicker, your students can respond to the following types of questions:– Multiple choice, true/false– Numeric– Series

• Responses are automatically recorded in the designated file on the host computer, and can be shown on the screen for immediate feedback

Before classes start

• Install PRS software on the computer you’ll be using in class– I have been using classroom computers, mostly successfully– I’ll be experimenting with a laptop this semester

• Important: specify the directory to which results should be logged – since I’m using a flash drive, I have to make sure the drive mapping is correct in different classrooms

• Need to install:– PRS software– PRS hardware driver for receiver (will be prompted to this the first

time you plug in the receiver)

Modes of Operation (My terminology)

• Lecture

• Test

• Homework

Example session

• The next several slides illustrate a typical question/response classroom lecture session

• Preliminary steps (assumes you’re using a PowerPoint lecture):– Attach the receiver and ensure it’s working– Start the PRS software– Start PowerPoint

Starting a classroom session

Starting PowerPoint

Specifying session parameters

Typical question

Response grid shows student answers have been registered

Results can be shown immediately

Setting up questions

• Questions can be created using the PRS Software or embedded directly in PowerPoint

• To date, I have only used the PowerPoint option, since I use this tool routinely with lectures

Using the PowerPoint add-in

• The add-in is installed automatically with the PRS software

• You will see a new toolbar when PowerPoint starts:

Creating a question

• Type the question on a blank slide– For multiple choice and series questions, I usually use

the “bullet” format, but change bullets to letters or numbers

– For short answer, numeric or true/false, I usually use either the “title” or “blank with title” format

– If you are going to display a response grid and/or immediate feedback, make sure you leave enough white space on your slide to accommodate these

Creating a question

• Click the “New Question” icon on the PRS toolbar

• The next slide illustrates the result

New Question/Edit Question Menus

Student feedback

• “The clickers made class interactive – keeps one’s attention.”

• “Use clickers more. Made class more interactive.”• “I think using the clickers was helpful in testing

for listening during lecture and also understanding, but I think that it would be helpful to give a short quiz with the clicker over the previous lecture to keep the new vocab embedded.”

Test Mode

• For operation in test mode, the same kinds of questions can be used

• The only real difference between lecture and test mode is in the session parameters:– When each question is created (number of tries,

amount of time allowed)– When the session is started (response grid,

results, feedback on the clicker)

Homework mode

• I haven’t used this yet

• Students respond to questions using their clickers off-site; responses are recorded in the clicker memory

• When students log in during the next class, they can transmit their responses for collection on your computer