Choice and Application of
Keypads to Small Classes
Paul Williams
Department of Physics
Austin Community College
Austin, Texas
[email protected]
Outline
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Why use clickers in small classes
Applications of clickers in small classes
Choice of clickers for small classes
What do I mean by small?
My class environment
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Class limit 24 students
Two 1:15 class meetings per week
Followed immediately by two 1:15 lab meetings per
week
Same students for both lecture and lab
“Typical”
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Community College
High School
Liberal Arts college
…
Why use clickers in small classes?
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Reasons not to use Clickers
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Cost
Development
Cheaper Alternatives
Additional Course Management
No Cost Alternatives to Clickers
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Flash Cards
Show of Hands
Calling on individual students
General questions given to class
Pen and Paper
Reasons to use clickers
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Because of the anonymity, students feel safe
to participate
Students receive immediate feedback and
can compare themselves to the aggregate
Promotes higher quality of engagement
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Higher student attendance
Higher student participation
Improved Student Performance?
Students find clickers fun
Improved Attendance with Clicker Use
Attendance Time Series
Date
11/9/2007
11/2/2007
10/26/2007
10/19/2007
10/12/2007
10/5/2007
9/28/2007
9/21/2007
9/14/2007
9/7/2007
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
8/31/2007
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Prior to Clickers 50-75 % of students normally attended
class
Attendance data for algebra/trig first semester course
(normalized to number of students taking final)
Percent Attending
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Improved Participation
Prior to Clickers typically 75% of students would
respond to questions with show of hands or flash
cards
Time Series of Percent of Questions Answered by
Students Present (PHYS 1401 FA06)
Date
11/9/2007
11/2/2007
10/26/2007
10/19/2007
10/12/2007
10/5/2007
9/28/2007
9/21/2007
9/14/2007
9/7/2007
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
8/31/2007
% or Questions
Answered
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Student Success Rates
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Success Rate
defined as #
students receiving
A, B, or C divided
by number of
students enrolled 1st
day
Prior to
Clickers
With
Clickers
PHYS 1401
FA04 .57
SP05 .73
PHYS 1401
FA05 .83
SP06 .67
SU06 1.0
FA06 .67
Improvement of FCI scores with addition
of clickers
FCI gains of Colleague at ACC Teaching 1st
Semester Calc-based course
Traditional
Chalk talk
Addition of
PowerPoint
Addition of
Clickers
.20
.25
.42
Additional Benefits of Clicker Use
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Data Collection
Record Attendance
Assign a Participation Grade
Research Tool
Tool to improve instructional practice
My Application of Clickers
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Present
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Concept Tests
Peer Instruction
Interactive Lecture Demonstrations
Assign Participation Grade
Future
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TIPERs
Sample ILD Task
A massive cart, the truck, is pushed towards a
light cart, the car, that initially isn’t moving.
How does the force exerted by the truck on
the car compare to the force exerted on the
car by the truck.
Results from Spring, 2006
N3L Subset of FMCE
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GP1 Mean Correct 9.5
EP1 5.8 pre, 7.3 post
FMCE N3L Subset
Frequency
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16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
EP1 Pre
EP1 Post
GP1 Post
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Number Correct
8
9
10
Considerations in Adopting Clickers
to Small Classes
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Purchase Model
Hardware
Software Environment
Planned Use
Purchase Model
Cost
School Owned
Student
Purchase
1 time cost to school
~$2500 per class set
No cost to student
~$10-$30 cost
per semester
student
No cost to school
Managed by
Student (typically
via web)
Clicker
Managed by
Identification Instructor
Hardware Considerations
IR
RF
Needs Line of
Yes
Sight to Receiver
No
Communication
Serial
Parallel
Features
Few
On device feedback,
question queuing
Cost
Lower
Higher
(but getting cheaper)
Software Considerations
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Development/Delivery Environment
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Roster Management
Gradebook
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Stand alone vs. PowerPoint Add-in
Standalone
Data Export
Reports
Availability of Turnkey Curriculum
Planned Use
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All systems will support basic MC questions
Are other question types supported?
Not all systems support self directed testing
Some systems support games
Adaptability – Future uses
My Solution
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College owned class
set
PowerPoint Add-in
IR (Wish I had RF)
In the future I want to
switch to tablet PCs
which is supported by
system
IR devices don’t
support student
directed testing