Clicker Introduction Handout

Clicker information at the University of Waterloo
with links to information on all the topics below: www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~pkates/CTE/clickers/

List of clicker courses at UW: http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~pkates/CTE/clickers/clicker-courses.html

• Clickers at UW have been used since 2004.
• Recent years have averaged about 30-40 courses per term, in every faculty, with course sizes ranging from 35 to 1000 students and class sizes from 35 to 400 students.
• Talk to a clicker prof teaching a subject similar to yours.
• Watch a local UW clicker class in action.

Student and professor reactions

• Students like clickers because the class is more interactive, interesting and with immediate feedback about answers.
• Students like challenging conceptual clicker questions.
• Students don't like clickers when they are used primarily for attendance.
  
• Professors like clickers because everyone in the class answers questions.
• Professors like iClicker clickers because it's simple to use.

Watch a clicker class online

• See some clicker classes in the videos from UBC's Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative
• watch feedback to students and to professors
• watch peer discussion bringing more to classrooms

Science and Mathematics clicker question sites: Cornell GoodQuestions Project - calculus

Tips pages from old pros

• inventor tips pdf from Dr. Mats Selen and Dr. Timothy Stelzer, iclicker inventors and physics professors at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
• Dr. D. Duncan (U. Colorado) tips doc - Physics professor and author of "Clickers in the Classroom", (2005)

Publishers that may offer student iClicker discount coupons

• Pearson Education, Thomson Learning, Bedford, Freeman and Worth Publishers
• John Wiley, Elsevier, Houghton Mifflin, Norton, Lippincott/Williams,
• see https://www1.iclicker.com/our-partners/

Clicker compulsory ancillary fee is ok for clickers at UW.
https://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat-general-counsel/guidelines-pertaining-learning-resources-and-field-trips

Eric Mazur is visiting UW Thur Dec 11, 2014 at the Physics Dept teaching retreat with a talk Assessment: the silent killer of learning. Other Mazur talks Interactive Teaching and Confessions of a Converted Lecturer. See the Peer Instruction CTE page.

Misc

• iClicker software and hardware setup, user guides, tips, mark handling, student/prof FAQs
• research about the effectiveness of clickers
• creating clicker questions
• clicker question collections
• contact: Paul Kates, CTE Math Faculty Liaison

Paul Kates
Mathematics Faculty CTE Liaison
pkates@uwaterloo.ca, x37047
Last modification date: Mon Nov 10 20:20:34 2014.
url of this page: http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~pkates/CTE/clickers/handout.html