Novice or Veteran? – Agile Learning

My session on supporting faculty teaching with clickers at the POD Network conference last week went very well. In one of the session activities, I provided participants with a list of common and uncommon uses of clickers and asked them to indicate whether each use is more likely to be implemented by an instructor new to using clickers (“novices”) or more likely only to be implemented by an instructor with some experience teaching with clickers (“veterans”). I then polled the session participants using a few clicker questions.

You can download a copy of this handout from my session’s page on WikiPODia, but I thought I would share the results of some of the polling questions here.

As you can see, most of the session participants thought that taking attendance is something that those new to using clickers are likely to do. I should clarify that this doesn’t mean that veterans don’t do this, just that it’s not something that only veterans would do. One participant who said that only veterans would take attendance with clickers indicated that it takes a veteran to figure out how to link clicker responses to student rolls in the system she uses!

When it comes to using clickers to administer and grade quizzes, the participants were split. (Check the percentages above, not the sizes of the bars in the chart.) I think some instructors new to clickers see clickers as a way to make quizzes easier and faster to implement. However, unless a clicker quiz is reviewed with the students immediately after it’s administered, using clickers to administer the quiz doesn’t really add value to the students’ learning experience, it just makes the instructor’s life easier.

Why might this use of clickers be something that only more veteran clicker users implement? One answer is that instructors who find out about clickers from people like Eric Mazur (and me, for that matter) often see value in the use of clickers for informal assessment and agile teaching during class. Adopters who lead with the peer instruction method of using clickers are less likely to use clickers for formal, graded quizzes.

On the other hand, using clickers to facilitate peer instruction is something that my session participants felt was more the province of experienced clicker users. Sure, some instructors will start using clickers in this way, influenced by people like Eric Mazur and me. However, one session participant said that instructors not used to having students discuss during class might find this use of clickers a little too different to implement when just getting started with clickers.

I’ll admit I was surprised by the results of this question. I hear from a lot of instructors who like this use of clickers. What do you think? Is using clickers to facilitate peer instruction and small-group discussion something that those new to using clickers typically do? Or is it more of an “advanced” use of clickers?

I’ve got a few more results slides to share with you in a later blog post, so stay tuned.

Jennifer says:

November 6, 2009 at 11:15 am

For me, peer instruction is something that I *aspired* to do from the time I started using clickers but in practice, it is something that I have added over time. But this is partly because of the difficulty in coming up with good peer instruction questions. That is, I started with more formal quizzes (though not all questions are graded), using questions similar to quizzes I had given in smaller classes or exam questions, and would only do peer instruction when the answer distribution indicated lots of confusion. It has taken time to build a bank of questions that reflect the misconceptions and preconceived ideas that make for good peer instruction situations.

Emma says:

November 6, 2009 at 3:42 pm

Does anybody have a price for the clickers (TurningPoint or other brand)?
Thank you!

Christopher Heard says:

November 6, 2009 at 7:32 pm

I don’t know whether it’s “novice” or “veteran,” but for me, “facilitat[ing] peer instruction and small-group discussion” is practically the only reason I use clicker-type technology. I no longer use a proprietary clicker system (I use PollEverywhere instead, but the pedagogical strategies are the same.

Hall Jackson says:

November 7, 2009 at 9:02 am

I’m wondering if there is also another level of use. I have seen and heard of people extending the use of clickers beyond teaching. Are novices or veterens prepared to (brave enough) use clickers with their peers?
*Moderation of papers/student work by a large and diverse group (Teacher Jury)
*Staff meetings
*Staff Surveys and discussions
*Policy decision making or unpacking
*Curriculum discussion
Have any studies been done on the uses of clickers within teaching staff and administration?

S. Raj Chaudhury says:

November 18, 2009 at 6:22 pm

In response to Derek’s original post : another outcome of the POD Network conference was that he and I finally met in person after much electronic dialog 🙂

In response to Hall Jackson – yes to many of the items you list: (a) An Industrial Design instructor used clickers (very positive response) with her design studio class to have students vote anonymously on each others’ projects (b) the University Faculty Senate at Auburn U. recently borrowed 90 clickers to conduct polling during a Senate meeting (large university, large Senate). (c) I have used them in peer settings for a strategic planning group to vote prior to starting discussion on which of a selection of topics would be talked about in that session: the outcome fed into a 10 year Roadmap for NASA Earth Science Education.

Novice or Veteran? (Part Two) says:

January 7, 2010 at 8:17 am

[…] using clickers at the POD Network conference in Houston. Shortly thereafter, I posted here the results of some of the clicker questions I asked at the session asking participants to identify particular uses of clickers are more likely […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply