Learning Systems

What pedagogic purposes can iclickers serve?

As an electronic multiple-choice polling system, iClicker could easily be discounted as a tool designed for rote memorization within a behaviourist paradigm which, therefore, has no value in the socio-constructivist classroom. Such a view is, however, simplistic, and fails to take into account the many creative ways in which iClicker can be used – very successfully – to promote debate and critical analysis, engage students with the target material and increase motivation.

In addition to the possibilities that iclickers offer for collaborative learning, they enable instructors to better reach those students who are too shy to raise their hands in class. In fact, iclickers can be used anonymously, so students are free to express their views on even the most controversial topics.

Check learning and review difficult topics

1. Regularly ask students a few questions about the material you've just covered (or covered in the previous class) and use iclickers to collect responses. Display the results at the end of each polling session so students can see how the class as a whole is doing.
2. Don't give students the right answer(s). Instead, if a significant number of students chooses options other than the one(s) you would consider to be correct, hide the responses and take a few minutes to re-visit the problematic topic. You might, for instance, explain concepts in a slightly different way and/or offer more examples.
3. Once you've done that, have students discuss in pairs or small groups which option they would choose now, providing each other with justifications for their answers. Following that, poll the class again, and more often than not you will see the 'correct' answer(s) shoot up in the graph. Not only are these peer teaching sessions fun because they change the pace of the class, but they promote the use of higher-order cognitive skills such as critical analysis and synthesis.

1. Create questions that require respondents to work out a problem rather than just recall a fact from memory.
2. Avoid confusing question structures such as "if A and B is correct but not C". Normally you wouldn't want students to devote most of their brain power to deciphering the question itself instead of engaging with the topic.
3. Also avoid trick questions, as they cause students to spend most of their time trying to find a clever catch rather than focusing on the meat of the issue.
4. Whenever possible, offer multiple-choice answers that are not mutually exclusive, i.e., where more than one answer could be correct. Remember that the purpose is not to train your students in pragmatic decision-making, but to stimulate critical thinking and collaborative learning.
5. When students have had some time to ponder the options, have them discuss the question in pairs or small groups, giving them sufficient time to develop arguments and counter-arguments.
6. After students have had a chance to work out the question on their own and debate it with peers, take a poll using iclickers. Once polling stops, display the answers and discuss the merits of each option, encouraging a representative from each group to share some of their arguments or conclusions with the rest of the class.

Have students suggest answers to a question

1. Although this activity can be time-consuming, the potential rewards are high. Create a question that requires students to review notes and problem-solve. If it can be correctly answered in more than one way, even better.
2. Display the question to students without any possible answers. Have them discuss it in pairs or small groups, each of which should write its suggested answer in one line on a piece of paper.
3. Collect students' answers and select four or five that represent plausible solutions or which offer opportunities for clarifying the topic at hand. Write them on the board or on a transparency, or project them using the iClicker program's "question on the fly" facility.
4. Take a poll, display the results (which students will be anxious to see, since their own answers were being considered by their peers) and promote debate as previously suggested.

Student acceptance

Dr. Henning Struchtrup (Department of Mechanical Engineering) recently conducted a survey with his students here at UVic and has kindly made the results available to the campus community. Click here to view the PDF.

Watch what others are doing with iclickers

Take a look at the page entitled Good practices: iclickers in use, where you will find videos showing examples of this technology being used effectively by UVic instructors.

Send us your ideas!

If you have a suggestion for a pedagogically-sound activity involving iclickers, please send it to us! We'll publish it and give you credit, if you would like.