The use of clickers in Instrumentation and Control Engineering education: a case study

Abstract

This paper presents results from a small-scale study of third-year Instrumentation and Control Engineering (n = 37) at the University of Plymouth. The aim of the study was to enhance student learning and increase participation via the use of clickers. Clickers allow for student participation anonymously. The lecture content was modified to embed clicker questions at regular intervals to test knowledge, understanding and cognitive skills. Largely, the students preferred interactive lectures to traditional didactic lectures and using clickers increased student engagement and participation. Interestingly, compared to assessment results from the previous year, the increased level of engagement did seem to lead to an overall improvement in grades of approximately 10% in the subject of Control Engineering. However, in Instrumentation, the average fell by approximately 20%. One possible contributory factor of this drop could be the changed exam format for Instrumentation only. This year, the multiple choice section was removed from the Instrumentation examination paper. Furthermore, an analysis of variance showed that in addition to using clickers in the lectures, attendance plays a key role. Results of this small-scale study show that for a more complex subject like Control, student learning, engagement and attainment can increase by the use of clickers. ARTICLE HISTORY

Using audience response system in a third world country: The good, bad and ugly

“…(2014) also upholds that building interactive activities using ARS into lecture rooms supports learning and ultimately improves students’ performance. Students thought using clickers made a positive difference to their understanding of the subject and that they are very motivated towards their usage of clickers (Khan et al., 2019). Also, student participation as well as attainment improved with the use of clickers suggesting a possible link between increasing interactivity during lectures, increased participation and student attainment in a more challenging subject.…”

“…Tregonning et al (2012) claimed that students enjoyed obtaining immediate feedback and allowing them to pick up misunderstandings made during the lecture. Khan et al (2019) stressed that student engagement and participation improved as a result of introducing clickers into the classroom. Siau et al (2006) added that students perceived the ARS to be easy to use and useful for their learning.…”

Usage of a Web-Based Student Response System (SRS) in the Classroom: An Analysis of Accounting Students’ Perception

“…Because students can only maintain a good level of attention for 15-20 minutes (Beekes, 2006;Lea, 2008), SRS questions can help them to stay more concentrated. Eng et al (2013), Khan, Schoenborn, and Sharma (2019), and Yuen (2018) obtained similar findings. Yuen (2018) found that 80% of accounting students agreed more with the following statement: "uReply (a type of SRS) increased my attention span."…”

Applications of an Online Audience Response System in Different Academic Settings: An Empirical Study

“…According to earlier studies this has yielded positive results for student engagement [13,10,20,7,11]. Alternative strategies for instruction that follow less formal methods and focus more on student engagement through choice and con-trol [27], have been successful in encouraging students to take greater responsibility for their own learning [17].…”

“…He further listed some advantages and disadvantage of electronic clickers which involved usability, cost and technical problems. Khan et al [11] in 2019 conducted a small case study on third year engineering students whose field of study was 'Instrumentation and Control Engineering' at the University of Plymouth. The study was conducted to identify the positive impact of clickers on learning outcomes for students involved in complex fields of study.…”