Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Personal Response System in the Classroom

Abstract

We evaluated the effectiveness of the use of an electronic personal response system (or "clickers") during an introductory psychology lecture on perceptual constancy. We graphed and projected student responses to questions during the lecture onto a large-screen display in Microsoft PowerPoint. The distributions of answers corresponded well to results found in the literature. Students rated the lecture as more interactive, interesting, and entertaining. Students in the clicker lecture also performed significantly better on exam questions concerning the lecture compared to another group of students who did not use the clickers.

Un nouveau processus d’évaluation pour améliorer la qualité des feedbacks dans les tests en ligne

“…Les deux auteurs mettent en avant le rôle des évaluations formatives apportant à l'étudiant un feedback tout au long de son apprentissage lui permettant de savoir où il en est par rapport aux connaissances ou compétences visées. L'impact positif des systèmes de votes interactifs sur l'engagement des étudiants révélé par différentes études (Caldwell, 2007 ;Gauci et Dantas, 2009 ;Shaffer et Collura, 2009 ;Uhari et al, 2003) peut s'expliquer en grande partie par sa fonction d'évaluation formative : pendant le cours, les étudiants constatent en temps réel, individuellement et par rapport au groupe, leur degré d'acquisition d'une connaissance ou d'une aptitude cognitive.…”

Comparing active learning techniques: The effect of clickers and discussion groups on student perceptions and performance

“…It is therefore not surprising that when clickers are used in the classroom, students find the class more engaging, interesting and entertaining (Barnett, 2006;Benson et al, 2016;Blasco-Arcas, Buil, Hernández-Ortega, & Sese, 2013;Chien et al, 2016;Stevens & Fontenot, 2017). Numerous studies have also shown that clickers are effective, such that student performance on exams increases compared to traditional classrooms without clickers or nontechnology-based response systems (e.g., holding up response cards; Blasco-Arcas et al, 2013;Brady et al, 2013;Hunsu et al, 2016;Shaffer & Collura, 2009). In addition, compared to control or hand-raising groups, the anonymity of clickers creates a more comfortable classroom environment that facilitates student participation and decreases student conformity to questions in class (i.e., increases variability of responses to questions; Freeman, Blayney, & Ginns, 2006;Stowell & Nelson, 2007;Stowell, Oldham, & Bennett, 2010).…”

Reflexive Learning, Socio-cognitive Conflict and Peer-assessment to Improve the Quality of Feedbacks in Online Tests

“…Both authors put forward the fact that "formative assessments" provide the student with the feedback allowing him to know where he stands. The positive impact of interactive vote systems on the involvement of students shown through different studies [4,6,14,18] is due mainly to the formative assessment function: during a lecture, students are able to notice in real time their level of knowledge or cognitive ability, whether individually or compared to a group. Starting from these findings and to increase the participation rate in the writing of an explanation about a question during a lecture, our hypothesis stands on the fact that students should be provided with immediate feedback about their notes.…”