Molly Morris

Describe how you use clickers in your classroom. How often do you use clickers in your class? Do you use them everyday?

YES. I have incorporated their use in to all my lectures. The only time I do not use them is when the class  breaks down in to small groups for discussion.

How many questions do you give during a typical lecture?

For an hour long class, I find that 4-5 question is about right.

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

Sometimes I have students work together, sometimes not. I like the idea of students feeling responsible for their answers. It helps motivate them to read the material before class.  However, if it is a new idea, I will often have them work together before they answer. Another time I allow them to work together is if most of the class gets the answer wrong...or all the answers get equal votes.  What is really interesting, is that often after they work together, more of the students get the right answer.

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

I assign each student a clicker, but I have not yet used their answers to assign points towards their final grade.  One of the reasons I do not do this is that it can be quite a hassle in a very large class (over 100) when clickers have problems, students miss classes for legitimate reasons etc. The good students will always want to be sure that there are no mistakes. By still saving the records, however, I can pull up students clicker scores when they come to see me and tell if they have been missing most of the questions or class altogether.  When they know you can do this, it helps students take the use of the clickers a bit more seriously.

What results/benefits do you observe in using clickers? How have students responded to the use of clickers? Do your students think clickers benefit them?

Overall, the response to the clickers has been very positive, both during class in my evaluations.  It keeps students focused during class by breaking up the monotony of a lecture, and giving them an interactive task.  I often discover that there is something NO ONE understands that I thought was perfectly clear. Or, that everyone understands and I do not need to go over the next four slides of my lecture in the detail I had planned. Therefore, I think the lectures are more likely to be useful to the students. The questions not only let students know if they are understanding the material or not, they are also very good practice for exams. Depending on the type of question, I sometimes will put questions from class on the exams.

What are the biggest challenges to using clickers effectively?

First of all, now that Mike Roy has worked to make the technology mesh so well, and is right there to help you if you have problems, working with the technology is no longer the biggest challenge. Now, for me, it is writing good questions. Mutliple choice questions are always difficult to write, but ones that will achieve your goals during class can be even harder.

What sorts of questions do you find are most effective for clicker sessions? What are your goals for using clickers?

The type of questions that work depend on your goals.  One goal is to simply see if students read the assignment before class. Here, the question can be straightforward and simple. One correct and obvious answer.  Another goal can be to see if students can apply a concept you have just explained in class. Here, the question can ask the students to take what they have just learned and apply it to something they have not read about before. In these cases, I often spend time going over the wrong answers and why people picked them so that they can clearly see where they went wrong.  Sometimes I just ask questions without clear answers to see what the students think and to initiate a discussion. I can then let students talk about the answer in small groups afterwards. There are many more ways to use the clickers and part of the fun (they really are fun) is thinking up new ones.

How would you advise someone who would like to begin using clickers in a course?