Instructional Technology Conference 2008

Title: You Click, You Win: Supporting Data and Best Practices for Engaging Students in Science Classrooms with Clickers

Name: Gerald Bergtrom, Ph.D. & Terry Bott, M.S.

Audience Level: all

Audience: Instructional support, Web technology instructors

Length: Faculty, Deans, instructional technology specialists, general

Abstract:
Students who think and talk about what you want them to learn, learn more. In fact, engaged students perform better on assessments. Clicker (student response system) technology can effectively engage students in interactive learning. Our data will show that students with diverse academic backgrounds not only enjoy using clickers, but perform significantly better on summative assessments. Some best clicker practices will be demonstrated to engage the audience.

Description:
Large lecture halls promise anonymity, silence, restiveness, boredom, sleep… a daunting learning environment at best! Students struggle to pay attention, take notes and retain knowledge. Their attention drifts after 10-20 minutes, their lecture notes capturing progressively less lecture content. Active learning posits that students who think critically about new information acquire more and deeper knowledge than passive recipients of information. Large classroom methods of implementing active, engaged learning are diverse. Collaborative problem solving, quizzing, writing assignments and discussions are all effective in regaining student attention. But using these techniques incurs a cost in lecture time, up to 5 lecture periods per semester. Few science instructors (or others for that matter) will sacrifice this much content delivery time to implement active learning. Student response systems (clickers) can resolve the tension between content coverage and student engagement because their use requires minimum instructor preparation time and little sacrifice of content.

Because they transform the large lecture hall into an intimate interactive learning space, clickers are being used increasingly and in many disciplines in higher education. Clicker use in the classroom is like the audience lifeline thrown to a contestant on the popular TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Students click a hand-held keypad in response to questions projected on screen, after which a histogram of aggregate responses appears. Students get instant feedback on what they do or don't know. Instructors get the famous 'teachable moment' to generate discussion, correct student misconceptions, and even 're-vote' after a collaborative learning activity. Learning and review are immediate… instead of after the next exam. This is formative assessment at its best!

In several studies, students in a clicker-based course achieved higher exam scores and course grades than students taught in a traditional, non-interactive format. However, these data did not control for differences in student preparation and background in the two courses or for more nuanced differences in how the two course offerings were taught. To date, most studies do not control for factors other than (or in addition to) clicker use that could contribute to higher exam performance in clicker-interactive classes. We now report results of a study of >400 students in an introductory biology class for majors. The data support the hypothesis that clicker-based active learning itself improves summative exam scores among students with a broad range of academic preparedness. Evidence also suggests that clicker use promotes retention of conceptual and critical thinking skills beyond the time of clicker use in the classes. We believe that a number of 'best practices' that evolved in these courses contributed to improved academic performance. We will demonstrate some examples to an interactive audience using clickers.

Session Type: Lecture/Presentation (but flexible)

Contact information/affiliation:
Gerald Bergtrom, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology & Instructional Design Consultant
Learning Technology Center
Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
P.O. Box 413
Milwaukee, WI 53201
Tel.: 414-229-4319
Fax: 414-229-6758
e-mail: bergtrom@uwm.edu

Terry Bott, M.S.
Instructor, anatomy & physiology
Biology Department
Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
P.O. Box 413
Milwaukee, WI 53201
Tel.: 414-229-6254
Fax: 414-229-6758
e-mail: mtbott@uwm.edu

Equipment: PC projector

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