Mobile phone voting for participation and engagement in a large compulsory law course

Abstract

This article reports on an action-research project designed to investigate the effect of a technological intervention on the complex interactions between student engagement, participation, attendance and preparation in a large lecture delivered as part of a compulsory first-year law course, a discipline which has not been the focus of any previous study. The technology used was VotApedia, a form of mobile phone voting, and it was implemented in tandem with constructivist pedagogies such as explicit pre-reading and a prior context of interactive lecturing. Data were collected through observation, via mobile phone voting in class and by an online survey designed to specifically explore the relationship between attendance at VotApedia lectures and factors such as self-reported engagement, attendance and preparation. The findings indicated that student response systems (SRSs) are just as applicable to more Humanities-style disciplines which require divergent questioning, and supported complex interactions between engagement, attendance and preparation. Preliminary findings indicated that, although more work needs to be done, especially on the types of students who prefer to use these systems, there is a clear potential to increase student engagement in large law lectures through the use of SRSs.Keywords: student response systems; pedagogy; VotApedia; constructivism; action research(Published: 08 April 2014)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2014, 22: 19537 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v22.19537

Have You Voted? Teaching OSCOLA with Mentimeter

“…8 9 However, there is some research to indicate that ARS use does have a wear out effect if overused 10 and that it works well in conjunction with formative assessments of subject matter that can be assessed through an answer framework that requires a correct answer versus a discussion of nuances. 11 Ideally, we wanted to make use of the students' own devices, as it was clear from observing our previous lectures that many students use laptops for notetaking, and use smartphones and tablets during class. iPad minis were given to this particular cohort at the start of their course and the Law department was encouraging student use of digital tools to enhance their studies.…”

Involvement with Response Technology as Student-Centringof Language Teaching

“…Although RT use by teachers and students in language classrooms has resulted in a small corpus on reported practices, little research looks at RT in language education (Kay & Lesage, 2009;Habel & Stubbs, 2014). Furthermore, Penuel, Boscardin, Masyn, and Crawford (2006), Kay and Knaack (2009), and Ludvigsen, Krumsvik, and Furnes (2015) remain the only comprehensive studies of RT in lower-education settings.…”

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“…& Lievens, 2018). Student response systems were initially developed in the 1960s (Habel & Stubbs, 2014) through the use of clickers and are still being used today (e.g. Buil, Catalán, & Martínez, 2019).…”

“…In this review I will share my experiences of using Mentimeter with undergraduates through to doctoral students and staff in management and business schools. (Habel & Stubbs, 2014).…”