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CATHERINE DRENNAN: We started
using these clicker devices

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in 511.1, and clickers are there
small credit card sized devices

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where I can put a
question up on my computer

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that the students will see,
and it will have three, four,

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or five choices.

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And the students can
look at the question

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and click in what they
think the answer is.

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And this was a big
trend, I think,

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in education for big
classrooms because it allows

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the students to engage more.

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The teacher, who's standing in
the front of the room with 300

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people, they're not necessarily
going to raise their hand

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and go, I'm confused,
because it's a big class.

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But if I ask them a question
to see if they're confused,

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they'll click in.

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I'll go, oh yeah, that did
not go the way I wanted.

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Clearly people are confused.

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Let's talk about this some more.

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Or 95% get it right,
and it's like, OK,

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I can move on and go
on to the next thing.

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So it's a great, I
think, teaching tool.

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Everyone should be clicking
in to the clicker question.

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So does someone want to explain
why this is the correct answer?

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But when we first
brought them in,

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the students were not
so excited by them.

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And there were other classes
at MIT that were using them,

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but it was like,
OK, we'll do this.

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But I didn't get that there was
a lot of enthusiasm for them.

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So I tried to think about ways
that we could make it more fun.

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And so one thing that
I thought is that we

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could have some competition.

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And in 511.1, there are
multiple recitations

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that are run by a
graduate student TA,

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so everyone in the class
would have their recitation

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group of 20 people.

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And so I thought, well,
on Friday in class,

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we'll have a little
competition and we'll

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see which recitation gets the
most clicker questions right.

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And they will get
a reward, which

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is maybe some donuts at
recitation next week.

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Something small.

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Some kind of food.

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And largely, it was
bragging rights.

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Our recitation got the
most questions right.

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So we started doing
this, and then I

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surveyed the students
both before we

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had done the competitions
and after to kind of look

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at whether the students
liked the competitions

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and felt like they
were learning.

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And I found a really
big difference.

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So students had
always said, yes, I

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try to answer the
questions correctly.

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But then when we asked them
questions about how hard they

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wanted to work to understand
chemistry and their real desire

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to learn and the
impact of the course,

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that with the competitions,
all of these things

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were much higher.

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And so it just seemed like
they were more engaged.

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There was more of a
buy in, and I would

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talk to some of these students.

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And they were like, oh yeah,
I'm in Jay's recitation.

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And they felt a
part of something.

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They had ownership.

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And a lot of the groups
in the recitation,

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they would start
studying together.

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Even though they didn't
know each other before

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and this is often
freshman year, so these

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might be some of
the first people

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they're meeting
in their classes.

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They got very serious
about the competition

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some years, so they would
meet the night before class

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to review some things so they
were ready for the competition.

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And I've seen
students who've been

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doing this for a number of
years in their junior year,

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and they're like, oh yeah, I
get together with my friends

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from the clicker competition
every month or so.

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We go have dinner
or do something fun.

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So they're making
friends for life.

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And so I think that this is
just in a big 300 person class,

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feeling like you belong,
you're an active participant

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rather than a passive one.

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These clicker competitions
built this sense of team.