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Audience response systems: Engaging, interactive, and "just-in-time"

Abstract

Audience response systems similar to those seen on television game shows are rapidly becoming a popular tool for engaging students in the classroom. This piece of technology has many uses within instruction including discussion starter, gauging student opinion, self-assessment for students, and just-in-time assessment by the faculty. If used correctly, an audience response system can be a valuable tool for faculty who wish to enhance interactivity and provide immediate feedback within the classroom.

Description

Audience response systems which consist of the system software, a receiving unit, and a number of handheld responders are gaining in popularity as evidenced by use in college classrooms. These systems allow faculty to not only present information to the students, but also gather it in return in either an anonymous or an identifiable fashion. They are used to gauge opinions on topics, spark discussions, collect polling information, or simply keep the students engaged in a lecture. However, many faculty feel that the most important function of an audience response system is to gather real-time information on studentsí understanding of the learning materials. With this ìjust-in-timeî information, instructors can customize lectures ìon the flyî and focus on areas of misunderstanding and limit discussion on well-understood topics. This immediate feedback capability allows them to take a more learner-centered response to instruction.

This session will provide the audience with an opportunity to participate in an audience response system session and experience it from the student perspective. Several different uses and formats of the system will be modeled along with examples of actual classroom presentations. An instructor can customize these sessions to his own needs and can include game-show formats, timed questions, group and individual competitions, and anonymous results. The system used in this session has multimedia capabilities including audio, video, and graphics. I will give a brief demonstration of how these ìPowerPoint-likeî presentations are created, as well as, instructional design and logistical issues to consider when using an audience response system in the classroom.