Glen P. Jackson

How you use clickers in your classroom? 

I use the clickers to ask quantitative analytical questions, concept questions, and to initiate peer-instruction.

How often do you use clickers in your class?  

Anywhere from 0-10 questions per 50 minute lecture

Do you use them everyday?

No, I use them in about 80% of my lectures

How many questions do you give during a typical lecture?

3

Do students work together before answering or do they answer without consulting classmates?

For concept questions, I first have the students answer without consulting notes or neighbors. If more than 40% of the class get teh wrong answer, I have them talk with their neighbor. It takes a lot of encouragement to make them do this.

Describe the instructional sequence. Do you keep track of students’ individual responses? Do you assign clicker points?

This fall was the third time using the clickers and the first time I assigned students to a specific number clicker. I wanted to use teh clickers for credit in some way, but they were two unreliable for this. Batteries would die or some other communication error would occur, and I didn't think it would be fair to hold the student accountable for these problems. In short, I did not grade students attendance their PRS responses .  

What results/benefits do you observe in using clickers?  

The biggest factor is that it helps keep the students awake and actively participating. When else would a student pull out a calculator to see if they get teh same result as teh other members of teh class?

 What are the positive results of using clickers in your course? 
It provides valuable insight to me as teh types of concepts and skills that the students do or do not learn. Sometimes, I think I do a great job explaining an easy concept; I then post a question and almost the entire class gets it wrong. Other times, I think I do a terrible job explaining a difficult concept, and the class almost aces a difficult follow-up question.

 How have students responded to the use of clickers?  

Mostly, they like being empowered: they have an easy way of providing me with real-time feedback without having to embarrass themselves. They also get to see how they are doing in relation to their classmates.

 Do your students think clickers benefit them?  

Each term I give my students a questionnaire. For the most part, students have reponded very positively to using clickers.  

What are the biggest challenges to using clickers effectively?  

Their reliability is questionable. In its current state, It would be absolutely unreasonable for me to administer any kind of formal grading or attendance system based on the PRS system.