Instant Formative Assessment (and fun!)

One new technology that is being used at Roger Williams University to instantly assess student understanding of a topic and to hold attention is the student response system (also known as clicker technology or audience response systems). Similar to the polling system used on TV game shows, the clickers allow faculty to put up a question periodically throughout their class session and have students use their clickers to choose an answer (see a short video from a vendor on how these work and hear some ideas for using them to engage students at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1rtsRD465A).

The challenge to this technology is that it requires either the University or the student to purchase individual clickers for each student, with the University, department or instructor also purchasing a receiver and clicker software. The clickers cost anywhere from $26 - $40 per clicker and the receivers typically cost around $200. The cost of the software is variable depending on whether it is open source or proprietary. Once the hardware and software has been purchased, there is also the issue of battery replacements, lost or forgotten clickers and software upgrades for a variety of vendors on our classroom images. Although this is very useful technology, it has been cumbersome to manage.

Now enter Poll Everywhere - a next generation, web-based virtual clicker that can utilize any mobile technology to participate - and all at the same time! To use Poll Everywhere, faculty would type in a question on the Poll Everywhere website and their students could then record their answers by texting with their cell phone, sending a tweet via their Twitter account, or vote on the website using a laptop, Netbook or Smartphone. It doesn't matter how responses are sent, Poll Everywhere will aggregate all the data and produce a report instantly to indicate responses. Faculty are also not limited to multiple choice answers - students can type in sentences as a response (or numbers if solving a math or chemistry problem). With this technology, you'll get instant feedback on whether the students are understanding the topic or whether you have to revisit it. You can also gather opinions, conduct quick pretests and posttests and even take attendance in a large lecture. Polling is a great way to start a class by immediately engaging the students in the topic of the day.

The good news is that Poll Everywhere has a free account that you can register for that will accept up to 30 responses at a time. No software to load, no hardware to manage, nothing to buy - just create a web account and start your first poll. Play a demonstration of their product on their website at: http://www.polleverywhere.com/

Want to talk to someone who has used this strategy at Roger Williams? Contact Linda Beith at lbeith@rwu.edu or via phone at 401-254-3134. Enjoy!