2008 Woodie Awards
More active classrooms may be a click away
Brian Mason
Issue date: 3/14/08 Section: News
Students may soon find that the cost of skipping class outweighs the benefit of an extra hour of sleep.
Christopher Ruebeck, assistant professor of economics and business, has been piloting "clickers" with his 100-student Economics 101 class this semester. Clickers, formally known as an audience response system, allow professors to track students' class participation by having them electronically submit answers to questions asked during lectures.
Although Ruebeck, who presented his experiences to an audience of professors Wednesday, is the first to use the technology at Lafayette, Instructional Technologist Jason Alley said ITS would be willing to work with any professor who wished to try clickers in his or her classroom, and some professors in attendance seemed receptive to the idea.
A clicker is a small, handheld device, about the size of a television remote and comes equipped with a keypad and an LCD display. Clickers use technology similar to WiFi internet, meaning students do not have to point the device directly at the professor's receiver. When students submit answers to a question, the results show up immediately on the professor's computer. Each clicker is registered to an individual student, so the professor can see specific students' answers, but answers appear anonymously when shown as a graph.
Ruebeck spoke positively of his experiences with the device, and said he believed it greatly increased class participation. "[Using clickers] caused me to become more aware of what active learning really means," Ruebeck said. "It has embedded active learning in the class without having to call on each individual student."
Throughout this semester, Ruebeck has used clickers to periodically test students' understanding of concepts, grading each individual response, but dropping the lowest 20 percent of clicks. After the entire class submits an answer to his question, he displays the results graphically. The results allow students to see if they are missing a point most of their peers seem to grasp, and it enables Ruebeck to set an appropriate pace for his lectures.
Christopher Ruebeck, assistant professor of economics and business, has been piloting "clickers" with his 100-student Economics 101 class this semester. Clickers, formally known as an audience response system, allow professors to track students' class participation by having them electronically submit answers to questions asked during lectures.
Although Ruebeck, who presented his experiences to an audience of professors Wednesday, is the first to use the technology at Lafayette, Instructional Technologist Jason Alley said ITS would be willing to work with any professor who wished to try clickers in his or her classroom, and some professors in attendance seemed receptive to the idea.
A clicker is a small, handheld device, about the size of a television remote and comes equipped with a keypad and an LCD display. Clickers use technology similar to WiFi internet, meaning students do not have to point the device directly at the professor's receiver. When students submit answers to a question, the results show up immediately on the professor's computer. Each clicker is registered to an individual student, so the professor can see specific students' answers, but answers appear anonymously when shown as a graph.
Ruebeck spoke positively of his experiences with the device, and said he believed it greatly increased class participation. "[Using clickers] caused me to become more aware of what active learning really means," Ruebeck said. "It has embedded active learning in the class without having to call on each individual student."
Throughout this semester, Ruebeck has used clickers to periodically test students' understanding of concepts, grading each individual response, but dropping the lowest 20 percent of clicks. After the entire class submits an answer to his question, he displays the results graphically. The results allow students to see if they are missing a point most of their peers seem to grasp, and it enables Ruebeck to set an appropriate pace for his lectures.
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