Clicker Information for Instructors

Contents

• Clicker experience
• Clicker FAQ for instructors
• Clicker FAQ for students
• Papers and Websites

Clicker experience

A good place to start learning about the experience of teaching with clickers is with the videos listed on the page Clicker Readings, Video, UW Pages and iClicker Software

A good selection of writing on the subject of clickers is also available on that page.

Many instructors have used clickers at UW. They are very willing to offer guidance and share their experience.

Here are some other experiences using clickers for engaging students in lectures, large or small:

• The paper Effective Use of the Audience Response System: A Primer is a short, two-page tip-sheet that summarizes the issues of teaching using a clicker system.
  Page one discusses designing questions that achieve your educational goals. Page two describes some common pitfalls in designing questions and using clickers.

• Some quotes from Wood's paper Clickers: A Teaching Gimmick that Works:

One study after another over the past decade has shown that students who engage interactively with each other and the instructor in the classroom learn concepts better, retain them longer, and can apply them more effectively in other contexts than do students who sit passively listening, perhaps taking notes for future memorization in preparation for an exam (evidence reviewed in Handelsman et al., 2004, Science 304, 521-522). This general principle applies at all educational levels, from primary school through college and graduate courses. At many primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs), where teaching is the primary responsibility of faculty members and class sizes tend to be small, these findings have driven widespread transformation of science teaching from lectures to seminar-style courses consisting primarily of student projects, presentations, discussions, and exploration of case studies that require students' active participation. ...

However, recently developed tools using simple information technology make it possible, with little extra faculty effort, to conduct even large classes in which students interact with the instructor and each other in a much more lively fashion that promotes active learning. One of these technologies is personal response systems, colloquially termed "clickers." These systems can not only provide valuable feedback to both instructor and students during a class, but can also facilitate changes in both student and instructor behavior that enhance teaching and learning, as described below. ...

Like any technology, these systems are intrinsically neither good nor bad; they can be used skillfully or clumsily, creatively or destructively. However, they can produce results that are eye-opening and potentially of great value to both students and instructors for enhancing the teaching-learning process. I will illustrate their use with an example from my own experience. ...

Whatever the reasons for the wrong answers, most were corrected by the process that Harvard physicist Eric Mazur calls Peer Instruction; the students were better at clearing up each other's confusions and misconceptions than I as the instructor could have been. ...

This example illustrates two uses of clicker questions: (1) to find out whether students are paying attention to the extent of hearing or noting down a stated rule, and (2) to find out whether they can use a previously explained concept in a somewhat different context to solve a problem or predict an outcome. The clickers are particularly useful with PowerPoint or similar programs, where questions asking for interpretation of an image or a graph or table of data can be incorporated into the presentation. Another use is to lead students stepwise through a complex process, for example, generation of a homozygous mutant mouse starting from embryonic stem cells in which a gene of interest has been knocked out or knocked in. Instead of simply hearing a description of the process, students are asked with multiple choice questions, followed by group discussion where there is substantial disagreement, what they should do next at each step in view of the desired goal. This way, they must think through each of the steps in the process, rather than simply writing them down for later memorization before a test. ...

The above advantages of using clickers in a large class, plus a few more, are summarized below for both students and instructors. ...

Nevertheless, not all students like the clickers. Although the majority warmed up to them during our course, a small minority continued to be negative. We have some evidence that this resulted from the "big brother" aspect, that their responses were all being recorded and stored in the instructor's database. Probably more significant, they had to come to class in order to receive points for participation (a significant fraction of their course grade), and to pay attention while they were there.

Not all instructors will like clickers either, and how they are used will depend on the individual and his or her tolerance for student input and some disorder during class. For example, when half the class has chosen a wrong answer, one option is simply to tell them the correct answer and move on. In my opinion, this would be a great teaching opportunity lost, and would negate use of clickers as a tool to increase active engagement. Another option is to explain the concept again, preferably in a different way. This is better, but the students are still sitting passively and taking notes. The third option, inviting students to convince their neighbors of their point of view as described above, seems to me by far the most effective. When a split vote occurs, the tension and desire to resolve it are almost palpable, and students have an emotional as well as intellectual stake in doing so.

The group interaction that this use of clickers encourages is difficult in the auditorium-style lecture halls where virtually all large classes are taught; there is a great need for RUs also to provide more large classrooms with flexible seating. Regardless of the seating arrangement, however, the use of clickers can lead to a substantial increase in student active engagement during class. They offer the possibility of further transforming courses to the point where information transmitted by the instructor is no longer the major use of class time. Instead, students are assigned reading and diagnostic problems in advance and required to post answers on the course website before class, so that the instructor can direct classroom activities to addressing difficult aspects of the material through interactive exercises (http://webphysics.iupui.edu/jitt/jitt.html).

On the other hand, an instructor convinced of the value of lectures and reluctant to change teaching style can use the clickers in a lecture context as above, simply to obtain valuable real-time feedback on concepts that students have difficulty with. The give-and-take atmosphere encouraged by use of clickers in our experience makes the students more responsive in general, so that questions posed to the class as a whole during a lecture are much more likely to elicit responses and discussion. For this reason, incidentally, teaching with clickers is a lot more fun!

• Quotes from a online discussion of the paper Encouraging Active Student Participation in Chemistry Classes with a Web-based, Instant Feedback, Student Response System with one of the authors Charles Ward:
  Q: In your Introduction you state: "No significant improvement (in student achievement) was noted when the SRS system (a clicker-like system) was used (10, 12, 14, 15, 18)." Is this conclusion coinsistent with your own use of SRS?
  A: We have conducted only preliminary studies of the impact of SRS on student achievement. This is not an easy thing to determine since there are so many factors that influence student achievement besides answering questions in class.
  Q: If so, what is your justification for using SRS at UNCW?
  A: Even though we lack data on student achievement, we certainly have plenty of data to show that students are much more engaged in classroom discussion when SRS is used to facilitate the discussion. An educational maxim says that you can't teach anybody anything if you don't have their attention. The SRS system certainly gets their attention.
  Q: In your paper you mention four patterns of classroom use:
  1. Questions interspersed during lecture
  2. Questions presented at the beginning of class
  3. Questions embedded in an auto-run, multi-media program.
  4. Questions requesting feeling or belief indicators.
  5. Questions asked and answered prior to coming to class.
  • What do you consider to be the advantages and disadvantages of each pattern of use?
  • Which of these patterns of use have you used in your Chemistry Classes at UNCW
  • What about the use of these techniques in laboratory courses?
  A: I don't believe there is a "best" time to ask questions. Rather, the timing of questioning depends on the purpose of the questioning. For example, if you want to find out if your students remember what you covered two days ago, you might ask questions about the material at the beginning of class. On the other hand, if you want to know if students understand what you just discussed, you should ask them at that time. The SRS system itself does not dictate any particular pattern of usage. It simply facilitates the question/discussion process whenever an instructor wants to engage the class in discussion.

Clicker FAQ for instructors

Index of Questions:

1. Who can tell me more about clicker use at UW?
2. Who is teaching with clickers at UW?
3. What are the benefits of teaching with clickers?
4. How do I get started teaching with clickers?
5. What clicker question banks are available?
6. What technology is involved with clickers?
7. How do students respond to clickers?
8. What hardware do I need?
9. Where do I get the iClicker software?
10. What software do I need in class?
11. What software do I need to evaluate student participation?
12. What does clicker registration mean?
13. Do I need to have my class register their clickers before voting in class?
14. What if the clicker ID number is missing or wears off?
15. What is a clicker frequency and how do I change it?
16. How are marks generated and reported to students?
17. What if I want the software to do more?
18. How can the correct answer be identified in class?
19. How can the correct answer be identified after class?
20. How do I use the clicker receiver in the classroom computer podium?
21. Can students change their mind and answer again?
22. How many questions were asked and what is the total number of clicker marks available?
23. How do I know who hasn't registered their clicker?
24. What is iClicker GO and how do I use it?
25. Who do I ask if I have further questions?

Answers:

1. Who can tell me more about clicker use at UW?
   The Centre for Teaching Excellence at UW is set up to help with questions, advice and experience with clickers at UW. Paul Kates, Mathematics Faculty CTE Liaison (x37047), has worked with most of the instructors using clickers on campus. Other contacts include Mark Morton, Senior Instructional Developer at CTE and your faculty CTE liaison Also see the next question for someone in your department who has taught with clickers.

2. Who is teaching with clickers at UW?
   A list of the current and past clicker courses at UW shows that thousands of UW students have been taught using clickers. The university has many instructors knowledgable about using clickers effectively in their classrooms. They are available to share their experiences with you.

3. What are the benefits of teaching with clickers?
   Briefly: more class participation, more feedback about the learning going on in the course (feedback to students and instructors both), and more effective use of time in larger classes.
   Longer expositions are included in
   1. Why Bother? Motivations for Clicker Use, a section in the paper Clickers in the large classroom: Current research and best-practice tips
   2. Why Use a Classroom Response System?, chapter two of Douglas Duncan's book Clickers in the Classroom.

4. How do I get started teaching with clickers?
   Contact Paul Kates (see bottom of page) to arrange a demonstration of the clicker technology. It is simple, and works without problem. Training takes 20 minutes. Learning to use clickers in your classroom takes longer. The papers at the end of this page, plus others at Clicker Readings, Video, UW Pages and iClicker Software will show you the range of question types available for use with clickers.
   Students buy their clickers from the textbook store. See the student clicker FAQ for more information.
   As with textbooks, you let the textbook store know your course will use clickers (see the bookstore's page Information for Faculty, or contact Shawn Gilbertson at x36078). Clickers are listed along with textbooks under your course name (e.g. CS 136) as a recommended or required purchase.

5. What clicker question banks are available?
   See section Subject-related Articles and Clicker Question Collections for a list of web sites offering clicker questions.
   Other possible sources are your textbook publishers and instructors using clickers in related courses.

6. What technology is involved with clickers?
   iClicker clickers were selected to be supported by campus computer services in the fall of 2008. More information is available here.
   In a classroom, a student's clicker sends a radio signal to a clicker receiver installed in the classroom's computer podium. The signal carries the clicker's ID number (printed on the back of the clicker) and the student's response, one of the letters A through E. Receipt is then acknowleged by lighting a green LED on the student's clicker. Each student's response is recorded in the iClicker software folder. A red LED means the student's response was not received or recorded. Reception is controlled by software (see below) in the iClicker folder.
   Clicker receivers are installed already in many classroom podiums. UW's ITMS is notified if your classroom needs a receiver installed.
   iClicker provides documentation and a FAQ at their support site.

7. How do students respond to clickers?
   Initially, most students are unsure about clickers. Your first lecture is important to inform them about the benefits of increased classroom participation and reassure them that previously students have had positive experiences in their classes. You can show students the page Why we are using clickers in our class while discussing with your students your plans for using clickers. Duncan and others make the important point that taking the time to introduce the goals and benefits of more interaction in class plus discussion about how clickers will work in the classroom goes a long way to ease anxiety.
   By the the end of term most students enjoy the freedom of a more interactive classroom and appreciate the higher level of feedback they receive about their learning.

8. What hardware do I need?
   Pick up a free blue coloured clicker from CTE MATH Liaison Paul Kates (x37047, pkates@uwaterloo.ca) or contact your faculty CTE Liaison. An instructor's clicker is the same as the white clickers bought by students. Through a software setting, an instructor's clicker can control the iClicker software and be used as a wireless presentation remote control. Clicker button controls (from iClicker docs):
   • A = Start/Stop Polling
   • B = Hide/Display graph
   • C = Advance slide (most effective when using PowerPoint or a similar presentation application)
   • D = Back up slide (most effective when using PowerPoint or a similar application)
   • E = Denote correct answer. Using E, you can toggle between your five choices on the graph. The choice upon which you remain will be highlighted as green and the other choices will become red. Note that you must display the graph in order to enable the E functionality.
   Inform ITMS, the bookstore or your CTE Liaison about your clicker course. A clicker receiver may already be in your classroom's computer podium. Check here.
   See directions for using the clicker receiver with your laptop or classroom podium computer.

9. Where do I get the iClicker software?
   The free iClicker software runs on current Windows OS and Mac OS computers. Download and unzip the folder in any location on your hard drive or flash memory device. Software and student response data stay together in the software folder. Click or double-click to launch programs in the software folder, no installation steps are required.
   The software download webpage is further described in section iClicker clicker information. Also see the link for software settings.

10. What software do I need in class?
    To ask questions in class, start program iclicker.exe, then click Start Session. A small, floating control window appears in the top-left corner of your screen. Click Start to enable reception and recording of student responses, and when ready, click Stop to end recording. Repeat Start and Stop for every question. Click the tiny "x" at the right end of the control window to end the program.
    A bar-chart of the class' responses can be shown and hidden at any time by clicking the buttons Display/Hide
    When the Start button is clicked, a screen snapshot is recorded and later used by the igrader.exe program. The snapshot is intended to capture and record an image of the question the class is being asked.
    Question creation and presentation is not built into the software. Use Word, Powerpoint, LaTeX, Maple, Matlab, HTML - any program you like - to prepare and present questions to the class.

11. What software do I need to evaluate student participation?
    If students are earning marks while using clickers, the iClicker system can generate individual marks with the igrader.exe program.
    First however, students will have to register their clicker ID (see the next FAQ question) and this registration data needs to be copied into the MyCoursePC or MyCourseMac folder. See the Marks Handling with Clickers page for how to do this.
    The program igrader.exe is included in the iClicker zip file. The program presents in a chart form a mark for each student in every clicker class (i.e. session). The mark displayed sums the marks over all the questions asked in a session. Marks are adjustable per question for each session and can be awarded by participation, correctness or both. Questions can be omitted from the grading process.
    By completing a registration process, student names, not just clicker IDs, are included in the igrader.exe program.
    Marks in both .CSV and HTML file forms are available as exports from the igrader.exe program. Showing students their clicker marks aids in building confidence in the clicker system and its intentions.

12. What does clicker registration mean?
    The end result of the clicker registration process is to allow the igrader.exe program to match up corresponding student names (and UWdir/login userids) with clicker IDs and their associated voting data recorded in class.
    Students register their clicker ID (located on the back of their clicker, next to the bar code) in their course in LEARN. More information is available here.

1. Do I need to have my class register their clickers before voting in class?
   No. Voting in class with a clicker will record the clicker ID located on the back of each clicker together with the student's vote. Ask students to register their clicker ID before running the igrader program to calculate clicker marks.

2. What if the clicker ID number is missing or wears off?
   A worn off clicker ID can be identified. Details are given in the student FAQ.

3. What is a clicker frequency and how do I change it?
   iClicker receivers and clickers work by radio signals on a default frequency, labelled AA. The signals are strong enough to reach into and affect clicker use in neighbouring classrooms. You might suspect this if while asking a clicker question in a class of 50, 75 replies appear.
   Clickers can be set to communicate with a receiver on one of 16 frequencies AA - DD. Each clicker classroom at UW has been assigned a clicker frequency, posted on a large sign near the classroom podium. A list of clicker rooms and frequencies can be checked here.
   To use the classroom frequency, you make a setting change (once) in the iclicker.exe program as explained in Recommendations for iClicker Settings and Preferences.
   Students change their clicker's default AA frequency by following the instructions printed on the back of their clicker (press and hold the On/Off button for a few seconds until the blue LED flashes, then press the new two-letter frequency code e.g. AB; the green LED will light as the clicker gets an acknowlegement from the receiver).
   But, the change is not stored by the clicker when turned off, so students must repeat the frequency change for each class.
   If the clicker receiver and a clicker are not using the same frequency while a question is in progress then the clicker will flash the red LED a few times.
   The other time the red LED flashes is when a student votes but the receiver is not acknowleging because a question hasn't been started with the iclicker.exe program.

4. How are marks generated and reported to students?
   Program igrader.exe exports several marks files. An online course Gradebook page or other course web page can show students their individual clicker marks. See Marks Handling with Clickers for details.

5. What if I want the software to do more?
   The iClicker software is written in Visual Basic and is open source. Send feature suggestions or requests for the code to your CTE Liaison or me.

6. How can the correct answer be identified in class?
   To highlight the correct answer on the histogram chart, either click on the correct column, or use selection E on the instructor's clicker. The column will change to a green colour.

7. How can the correct answer be identified after class?
   The igrader.exe program allows you to
   • override settings for points awarded for Participation and Performance
   • select the correct answer
   for any question in any session.

8. How do I use the clicker receiver in the classroom computer podium?
   See clicker-instructions.

9. Can students change their mind and answer again?
   Yes. While a question is open for answers, the most recent student vote is recorded. Encourage the class to make a final decision with a warning shortly before closing the question.

10. How many questions were asked and what is the total number of clicker marks available?
    See section Exporting and posting HTML marks from igrader.

11. How do I know who hasn't registered their clicker?
    See section Unregistered students and clickers.

12. What is a iClicker GO and how do I use it?
    iClicker GO is an online paid account where you can vote in your clicker class through a web browser instead of using a physical clicker. See here for more information.

13. Who do I ask if I have further questions?
    Questions about the purchase, use and registration of clickers can be directed to CTE Liaison Paul Kates (x37047, pkates@uwaterloo.ca). If your group would like a demonstration or seminar about clickers, please get in touch.
    ITMS handles the installation of clicker receivers in classroom podiums.
    The textbook store contact for clickers is Shawn Gilbertson (sgilbert@uwaterloo.ca).
    iClicker also has FAQs.

Papers and Websites

1. Clickers: a teaching gimmick that works, Wood, W.B. (2004), Dev. Cell 7, 796-798. (PDF). (Also available here as a text file.)

1. Clickers in the large classroom: Current research and best-practice tips. (PDF). J.E. Caldwell, J.E. (2007), Life Sciences Education, 6(1), 9-20.

2. Clickers in the Classroom (2005) by Doug Duncan. Chapter two: Why Use a Classroom Response System? (PDF).

3. Clicker Readings, Video, UW Pages and iClicker Software.

4. UW clicker courses, a list of UW clicker courses and instructors experienced with using clickers.

Paul Kates
Mathematics Faculty CTE Liaison
pkates@uwaterloo.ca, x37047
Last modification date: Sat Aug 23 19:36:36 2014.