NIU teachers seek ‘clicker’ consensus

by Mark McGowan

Students are accustomed to the pocketbook pinch that comes from buying textbooks and supplies at the dawn of each semester.

NIU faculty who require the purchase and use of student response systems, also known as “clickers” – new devices about the size and shape of a non-flip cell phone that allow students to communicate electronically with professors during class – don’t want to inflate those bills any more than necessary.

Accordingly, a group of professors has been meeting since the spring in the hopes of choosing a standard clicker for NIU.

“This is something that Faculty Development initiated,” said Carol Scheidenhelm, former director of the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center. “We wanted to raise campus awareness about clickers in the hopes that people would think ahead of time and perhaps try to agree on one system before they just went out and bought one. We didn’t want students to have to wear a clicker belt.”

Although talks continue, the clicker system produced by eInstruction is emerging as a favorite at NIU and already is the standard at Purdue University. Others under review include Quizdom, a relatively new company, and Turning Point.

“The more faculty we have using the same system,” Scheidenhelm said, “the more students will understand the system.”

Professors can use clickers for something as simple as taking attendance or for something more involved, such as multiple-choice quizzes that determine how well students are understanding the material.

The latter, physics instructor Lyle Marschand said, promotes active learning – especially for large lecture hall courses.

When students provide instant feedback, professors know immediately whether they need to stop and review or if they can continue. Students, meanwhile, can learn whether they’ve correctly grasped the concept.

Traditional methods of asking open questions can yield blank stares or a set of familiar raised hands, he said. Putting students on the spot in front of all their classmates can cause stress and maybe even absenteeism, he added.

“How do you get students re-energized when they hit the wall? You give them a requirement to respond,” said Marschand, a member of the committee and a fan of the eInstruction clicker. “What the clicker concept does is give everyone the opportunity to give feedback anonymously.”

Frequent quizzes that count toward grades also encourage students to keep up with the assigned reading. “Some instructors give a quiz every lecture using these,” he said.

Meanwhile, professors can immediately transfer scores into their electronic grade book. It saves even more time than tests graded via Scantron.

An eInstruction clicker costs $20, and students can sell them back. The company also charges up to a $15 user fee each semester which covers all courses.

“eInstruction is the most mature of the companies I looked at, and they’ve been big in K-12 schools for years,” Marschand said. “More of the kids coming out of K-12 have had some experience with these, which is why more universities are coming on board.”

Marschand has launched a discussion group on Yahoo; so far, a dozen NIU participants are sharing information and asking questions.

He said the group’s potential consensus on one primary clicker system will please both Faculty Development, which will have to teach only one system, and Information Technology Services, which will have to support only one system.

9-18-06