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JANET RANKIN: A common
active learning technique

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that people often use, or
maybe the first technique

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that they use, is
personal response systems.

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So that's an
opportunity for students

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to respond to a question.

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And that can be anything.

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It's usually a multiple
choice question,

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but it doesn't have to be.

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And it can be anything
from a show of hands--

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who thinks the answer is A,
who thinks the answer is B,

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who thinks the answer is C--

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to dedicated devices
and applications

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that allow students to
respond to questions.

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So there's pros
and cons for each

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of the different
techniques, but the essence

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of all the techniques
is that students

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are given an opportunity
to think about the answer

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that they think is correct,
and then respond to that.

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And there is evidence
to show, research

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that shows, that when students
make a claim, when they're

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asked to make a public response,
a public claim as to what they

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think the correct answer is,
that makes them more committed

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to the answer.

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And then they're more likely
to remember or to even notice

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if their answer is incorrect.

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It primes the
student for learning.

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And that's the biggest
advantage for any

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of these personal
response systems.

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The disadvantage with having
students raise their hands

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is that in a big lecture hall,
it can be hard to count, right?

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It can be hard to say,
OK, how many people raised

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their hand when I said A?

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How many when I said B, etc.

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So that can take up time and
it can be pretty inaccurate.

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The other thing that
people do sometimes

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is they'll use like,
just a sheet of paper.

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They'll put on letters
and then the students

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can fold the paper up.

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And depending on how
they want to vote,

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they just hold it up so that
really only you can see it.

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Point of fact is other
students can kind of tell what

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the other students answered.

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And if I know that
a friend of mine

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always gets the
answer right, then I

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might just look and
see what he or she said

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and then answer the same.

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So it might not give us a
real accurate measurement

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of what every student thinks.

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The other problem
with that is this

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can be hard to read
in a big lecture hall.

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Sort of the first kind of
digital or electronic personal

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response systems were
these dedicated clickers,

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is what they're called.

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And students literally,
they log into the system.

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They turn their devices on.

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And you ask a question,
and then the students

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respond A, B, C, D
using the touch pad.

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Some clickers lets
students actually

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type answers, so open response.

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They can actually type
a word, or a number,

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or a set of numbers.

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So that can give you a
little bit more flexibility.

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And then the software on
the instructor's computer

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will create a
histogram of responses.

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So you know right away the
distribution of responses.

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If you have more than
70% of the students

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get the question
right, you probably

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just want to state the
correct answer and move on.

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You can also say, if
you didn't get it right,

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here's some extra resources
or go to the TA office hours,

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or whatever.

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But in general, if more than 70%
of the students get it right,

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you can move on.

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One thing I like to do is if
I really have a resounding,

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say 75%, get it right, I like
to ask a follow-up clicker

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question that says,
how confident were you

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in your answer?

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Because sometimes
students will just guess.

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And if you give them
the opportunity to say,

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yeah, I got it right, but
I don't really know why--

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that might be the situation
sometimes, that a lot of people

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get it right, but not that many
people know what's going on.

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So you want to know that too.

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If between 30 and
70 get it correct,

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then I like to move
into the pair share.

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So I like to say, OK.

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Let's divide up.

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Looks like we have a pretty
good split of answers.

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So let's talk to
each other and we

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can do some peer-peer
learning where

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peers can try to argue
their point to whoever

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is sitting next to them.

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And then I ask
them to vote again.

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Now, when things
are working well,

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people actually converge
to the correct answer.

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And generally speaking--
I think it was Eric Mazur

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has a preliminary
research study that

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shows that when you
put two students

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with the incorrect
answer together,

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they actually tend to
converge to the correct answer

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because they argue
each other out

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of their respective
wrong answers.

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So that can be pretty effective.

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You do have to have a
pretty good distribution

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of incorrect answers
for that to work.

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If two students had the same
incorrect answer, generally,

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speaking they stay embedded
with the incorrect answer.

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If less than 30% of students
get the correct answer,

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you probably just want
to stop and reformulate

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your explanation and really
go over everything again,

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because that's really
not a lot of people

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that know what's going on.

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So that's the general
ballpark for how to proceed

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with the clicker questions.

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In between the pieces of
paper and the clickers

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are some newer technologies,
new applications.

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One is there's a
few applications

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for web-enabled
devices, like Socrative,

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which is a software
that you can download.

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The instructor
downloads it and then

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students log into a room using
their web-enabled device.

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So they log in and then no
one has to buy anything extra,

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but you are assuming
that every student has

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a web-enabled
device, and you are

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saying you're happy
if they take them out

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in your class, which may
not be true for everyone.

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So that's the issue
with that, access

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and also whether you want
the smart phones out.

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An application that I think
is a really great compromise

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is something called plickers,
with a P, P L I C K E R S.

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And with that, the instructor
downloads an application

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on his or her smartphone
or web-enabled device,

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it has to be a
device with a camera.

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And then the instructor
downloads these PDFs,

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which are just pieces of paper
with these patterns on them.

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They're all different, and I
believe you get 40 patterns

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for free and they're reusable.

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And so each one is unique and
you give them to the students.

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And students then
vote A, B, C or D.

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There's four sides to the shape
and four letters, A, B, C, D.

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And if they think
the answer is A,

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they hold it with
the A at the top.

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If they think it's
B, they hold it

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with the B at the
top, et cetera.

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And you can use your
web-enabled device,

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and you scan the crowd
with the software,

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and that actually
picks up the responses

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and creates a histogram.

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So I think that's a
really nice compromise,

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because it gives
you the histogram,

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it has student
anonymity, and students

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don't need anything
but the piece of paper

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that you gave them.

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And you can actually
reuse the piece of paper.

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We printed sets on card stock,
which are pretty durable.

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And we can use them
over and over again,

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so the students don't
need any extra technology.

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For educators that are
thinking about using

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some kind of personal response
system for their students,

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there's a couple different
levels of how far in to get

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and how fast.

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The first step would be to
construct some really good,

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thoughtful questions
that students can answer

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in a multiple choice way.

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That would let you use the
clickers, or a show of hands,

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or any of the other methods.

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It is important to construct
the clicker questions in a way

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that students know they're
really meaningful, that you're

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not just asking kind
of silly questions.

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You want to ask them
questions that are a bit rich

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and that also lend themselves,
as I said to, if students,

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you know if a decent number
don't get them right,

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that lend themselves to
that peer-peer interaction,

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that sort of debate
with each other.

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So want to think carefully about
your learning outcomes, what

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you want students to
know or be able to do

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by the end of the class.

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And you want to
construct questions

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that help them
get there and test

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whether they're there or not.

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So you might use one, or two,
or three questions in a class.

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And that might be it,
that might be all you do.

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But you do want to make
sure that you construct

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the questions thoughtfully.

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The next-- sort of if you
want to go further in,

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is to think about what it is,
really think critically about,

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your learning outcome.

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What do I want
students to get out

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of this class, this
particular class?

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And then construct a
series of clicker questions

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that really help
students understand

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whether they get it or not.

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Help them argue their
point with others

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or encourage them to argue their
opinion or point with others.

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And then ultimately,
come to a realization

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or come to attain the
learning outcomes really

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by engagement with
the clicker questions

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and by engagement in a
subsequent discussion.

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So where the clicker
questions are really

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the core of your
class and the learning

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happens sort of threaded
among those questions.