Executive Summary
The Elevate Team at UCS manage the Audience Response System (clickers), and have responsibility for evaluating their use within learning, teaching and assessment. The service aims to enable staff to effectively use audience response systems in their face to face teaching, learning and assessment practice.
The following report covers the period September 1st, 2013 to April 29th, 2014, and aims to address;
- Are clickers being used by staff at UCS and are they likely to continue using them?
- Do staff perceive clickers add value to their teaching, and the student learning experience?
The broad findings are in line with previous year. Staff who use clickers perceive they add value to the learning experience. On occasions this evolves into a number changing their face to face teaching plans to effectively embed this learning technology. However, the level of engagement by lectures at UCS with using Clickers is still relatively small. At the current moment we are not encountering any significant barriers to use.
The recommendations for the next academic year (2014/15) are;
- Review the online booking form based on commented from the last survey, and include links to FAQs within automated email response
- Look at RFID technology to offer a scan in & scan out service for better tracking
- Provide more printed help material for staff
- Coordinate the staff awareness and development programme, including, collect stories, posters and within structured staff development programme
From January 2011, the Elevate Team started administering the audience response system (clickers) at UCS. The service aimed to administer the loan of clickers and develop staff in their use of audience response systems (TurningPoint Clickers) to enhance face to face teaching.
The backdrop to the Elevate Team’s interest has been the rapid uptake of audience response systems across the UK HE Sector. This uptake has many drivers, one of which is the emerging assessment and feedback agenda.
The 2012/13 Annual Review outlined a number of recommendations which have been been implemented or part implemented. These are;
- Include printed (A5) quick guides within the Clicker bag on uses within teaching and learning Not completed - roll over for 2014/15
- Publish a set of quarterly blog posts on How clickers are being used within Higher Education Completed. Continue for 2014/15 as an implicit component of the service.
- Re-design the online staff development material, including; FAQs, Guides and Short Courses for Clickers Explored - waiting for UCS Infozone online
- continue to pilot the Poll Everywhere service as a complementary classroom voting / interaction tool for subjective questioning Service discontinued - no avialable budget
- arrange a webinar with an external speaker on the topic of enhancing teaching, learning and assessment through the use of Clickers Not completed - roll over for 2014/15
- be more proactive in raising staff awareness of effective use of learning technology Completed. Continue for 2014/15 as an implicit component of the service.
The data was collected via an online survey during May 2014. The respondents were identified as those who had booked the clickers between Sept 2013 and April 2014. The respondents were self selecting. The question design was informed by the previous year to allow a longitudinal context.
The response rate was 35%, with 9 respondents from a possible 26 people. It is acknowledged this is not a statistically significant response rate.
Findings and discussion
The following discussion focuses on answering two key questions;
- Are clickers being used by staff at UCS and are they likely to continue using them?
- Do staff perceive clickers add value to their teaching, and the student learning experience?
Are the clickers being used by staff at UCS and are they likely to continue to using them?
The evidence suggests clickers are being used. Between 1st September, 2013 and 29th April 2014 the clicker were booked on 59 occasions by 26 staff. This is a large increase from the previous year, where the figures were 27 occasions by 16 staff.
Table 1 illustrates the level of repeat bookings by staff.
Table 1: Number of times an individual booked the clickers
Frequency of bookings
|
Number of people (2103/14)
|
Number of people (2012/13)
|
1
|
12
|
5
|
2
|
6
|
7
|
3
|
3
|
1
|
4
|
6
|
1
|
5
|
1
|
-
|
6
|
1
|
-
|
Overall, there has been a very encouraging uptake of Clickers during the period, compared to the previous years. The proportion of staff re-booking has also remained high, even with the increase in staff using them (65% in 2012/13 and 58% in 2013/14).
The survey question asked, are you planning to use clickers again in your teaching? The responses identified all respondents (n=9) were planning on using them again.
The next question focussed on, do staff perceive clickers add value to their teaching, and the student learning experience?
It was evident 8 respondents (100%) thought the use of clickers in face to face teaching adds to the student learning experience. When asked, why? the responses clustered around key concepts of student engagement, feedback and the technology helped the lecturer adapt their teaching if required. For instance,
“The versatility of the system offers to students immediate feedback on their chosen option/answer. The graph showing percentages helps them realising how the answers are distributed and perhaps how
"generally difficult" a question was. This helps also the lecturer to spot areas that require further revision or explanation for the students. In terms of being used for revision sessions, clickers render everything more easy and straightforward, instead of time consuming approaches such as mock exams. Clickers are a great tool for enhancing learning and teaching”
“Students are more engaged - I think they feel more inclined to come up with an actual answer to the question (as opposed to quietly sitting in their seat waiting for the answer).”
“As a teaching and learning tool this clickers are very effective. Students assess the gaps in their own knowledge. It also adds variety to the session.”
The quotes are representative of the responses and highlight a genuine perception from staff that clickers add value to the learning experience. This view is evident as some staff are starting to change their session plan to include clicker activities within their sessions. For instance, when asked if you used clickers in a previous academic year, could you describe if your teaching approach has changed through their use? The responses indicated a developmental aspect.
“Practice makes perfect - I now use them in induction, in lectures, taster sessions and conferences.”
“My personal teaching style was definitely influenced by the positive reaction of the students while I was trialling Clickers.”
“My approach has changed as I continuously consider ways to make my teaching more interactive”
So how are staff using clickers in their teaching? The following set of quotes capture the way clickers have been used across the period. They indicate the use has tended to be formative, as a stimulus for small group discussions and to consolidate learning.
“Providing tutorials on final assessments.”
“As a method to assess understanding of the taught session. (ie multiple choice questions about the teaching session). As an adjunct to the teaching session (case scenarios during powerpoint presentations)”
“I've used the clickers in several ways:
- as part of review quiz to help me assess student understanding
- as part of a review quiz to help students identify where they need additional help
- for a "fun quiz" so participants (of workshops -- non-students) to see what they know and/or what others in the group think
- for statistics class, to generate numbers that students could crunch to see if there are significant differences between groups within the class”
An alternative indicator for perceived value by staff is “would recommend a clickers to colleagues within their departments”. The rationale being if they think it is not an effective learning tool, they are unlikely to recommend it to their peers. When asked the extent to which they agreed with the following statement, six respondents strongly agreed (75%), and the other two agreed (25%). The statement was, “I’d strongly recommend the use of clickers in face to face teaching to my work colleagues”. This is an improvement on the previous year.
The survey identified a number of common themes based on the two questions; How can the Elevate Team help you? and What hurdles are you encountering? Two themes emerged;
- A feeling of frustration as the software differed throughout UCS. This is due to the Microsoft OS roll out, which meant we have two versions of TurningPoint within the institution. This will be rectified in the summer 2014 as the OS upgrade is completed.
- A sense of not being aware of the software’s full capabilities. This needs to be addressed through more staff awareness.
Based on the survey and a number of other conversations, the recommendations are:
- Review the online booking form based on commented from the last survey, and include links to FAQs within automated email response
- Look at RFID technology to offer a scan in & scan out service for better tracking
- Provide more printed help material for staff
- Coordinate the staff awareness and development programme, including, collect stories, posters and within structured staff development programme
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