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News

Clickers to increase attendance, give feedback 

by MOHAMMED OLOKODE
The Daily Cougar

Some students taking introductory political science courses in the Fall can expect to pay for a new technology designed to help monitor attendance.

Political science professor Harrell Rodgers is testing RF Clickers in his political science 1337 hybrid course. The devices come imbedded with personal identification codes that students register at the start of the first class.

Each class, students use the clicker to sign in and participate in class quizzes. The information is collected on the professor's or teaching assistant's laptop.

"Well, in the first place, we know that other universities have been using clicker technology, and we have been investigating how clicker technology is used in other institutions and how well it worked out, and everything that we read about it w as really quite positive," Rodgers said. 

"We were looking for a way to take the roll and to also administer test reviews and pop test(s). And the clickers seem like a very easy way to do that, and they have worked out really very well. They're very handy for that type of thing," he said.

Rodgers also said that the legislature and the federal government are pressing universities to check more on attendance.

"And the reason for that is that all the studies show that people that attend classes regularly do better in them. And when students pay tuition and fees, they're paying less than 20 percent of the actual cost of being in the classroom. So one way to think about it is that taxpayers (are) paying 80 percent of the cost, and if there's anything we can do to help students be more successful, really, I think we have to do it."

Rodgers said the University plans to expand the technology to be used in three lecture classes in the fall, all of them political science courses. 

Students will pay $25 for the RF Clickers. The University also plans to create an online tutorial with a Podcast for students so they can learn how to do this.

But some students have mixed feelings about this technology.

"I really don't like them because … there's no … real conformation that you actually attend the class or if you accidentally click something you weren't suppose to, you know," biology freshman Farzan Hassan said. "It might count you absent."

Biology sophomore Tiffany Nguyen said the technology is not easy to use.

"They're an improvement in attendance and everything, but sometimes, I guess, it's hard to click on the button," Nguyen said.

Rodgers said the RF Clickers are another way to help to students adjust to technology that is becoming commonplace in classrooms and working environments. 

"Well, I think it just simply shows that this technology really works … If (students) really are comfortable with computer technology and hi-tech approaches, well then we're trying to provide that option, and I think a lot of students like it. They're used to learning online and using computers. And I think what this shows is just another way to enhance the technology in the classroom."

Professors and teaching assistants are the only people allowed access to the data received from RF Clickers. 

"So we put the quizzes up there in PowerPoint format and then we talk about the question, and then I ask each of the students to choose which is the correct answer. And then it shows you how many people gave each answer and then I tell them what the correct answer would have been," Rodgers said.

The RF Clickers allow the professor to give instant feedback to students who choose the wrong answer in class. 

"(The quizzes are) over the material that I just got through lecturing on, so in other words, it's surprising if they can't answer the questions. But you do see people making mistakes over things that we just got through lecturing on and I tell people, ‘Let that be a warning to you … that you didn't hear some of what was said today or you're mixed up, and you need to go back and look at the notes again,'" Rodgers said.
 

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