Clickers for large classes
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Hi all,
I am about to use student response systems for the first time next week in a class of 400; we anticipated fewer so 300 are in the lecture theatre with me and the remainder in a separate room! They will still be able to respond (and actually type in questions and text in the system we use at QUT).
I am looking for advice on the types of questions to ask. I have some that I like but with the introductory content (units, measurement, matter) I am struggling to find conceptual questions and most seem to be rather boring.
Also, do you put the questions in the copy of the slides the students get before the lecture?
Thanks for any tips from your experience!
Madeleine
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Daniel Southam
Wed, 02/22/2012 - 1:00pm
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Hi Madeleine,
Hi Madeleine,
We've been using clickers for around 4 years now, and generally find that it works best if the students don't get the questions ahead of time. We're using them for formative assessment, so for the most part this isn't an issue. It also supports our in-class POGIL activities really well.
A good source of clicker questions is the Journal of Chemical Education Qbank, which is available here: http://www.jce.divched.org/jcedlib/qbank/index.html
The ConcepTests and the like are probably what you're after.
Cheers,
Daniel
cfellows
Fri, 03/16/2012 - 7:57am
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Hope the clickers have worked
Hope the clickers have worked out well for you.
We use them for real time formative assessment which I find really handy - I can ask the students a similar question about something they find difficult again and again on successive days in a 'water wearing away a stone' way :)
We have a similar problem with numbers but are running duplicate lectures instead of putting the overflow students in a separate room. This is exhausting, but better for me - since I get a chance to get it right the second time ;) - and for the students - since they all have the opportunity to ask me questions.
Madeleine Schultz
Sat, 03/17/2012 - 6:38pm
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GoSoapBox
It turned out that the system that I was going to use, a QUT internally developed system, CRASHED when 100 students logged in at the first lecture (they had assured me that it would be fine up to 400!). So, I am now using GoSoapBox which has a very simple interface and seems robust to crashes - but does not allow me to have images in either questions or answers, or even subscripts and superscripts. But I can have the questions written properly on the powerpoint and then they find it on the webpage for GoSoapBox for my lecture and input their answer.
I am still feeling my way through the use of the student responses but I am pretty happy with it so far - they are definitely a lot more active in the lectures than when I asked the same sorts of questions as show of hands, and it has made me think a lot more about the type of question to ask them during class.
Madeleine Schultz
Mon, 08/06/2012 - 7:23pm
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estimating proportion of clicker use
Hi,
I am trying to find out how many people use clickers or other student response systems at all in their teaching. Can you please let me know whether 1. you use them or 2. they are used by others teaching chemistry at your institution (as far as you know).
Thanks
Madeleine