iClicker is a response system with which instructors may present polling or quiz questions to student during in-person or online synchronous classes. Students may use either the mobile iClicker Student app or a physical iClicker remote. Instructors can engage students and enhance learning through interactive polling or quizzing, as well as track attendance. Any courses that have a Canvas site and award points for iClicker polling or quizzing can be directly linked to the Canvas roster and grades. When polling, instructors may award points for only participating, answering questions correctly, or both. For more information, please visit the links below or contact CITL.
Karle Flanagan-Using iClickers in Large Lecture Classes
Engage Students in the Classroom. iClicker was originally designed as a tool to help engage students in large enrollment courses, but is being used increasingly in smaller 30-50 person courses.Students are vested in answering the questions posed and seeing how their votes compare with rest of class. Since humans are typically only able to maintain attention for periods up to 20 minutes at a time, iClicker is a great tool to reset up to 20 minutes at a time, iClicker is a great tool to reset student attention, when used at different points of the lecture. Julia Shapland, Accountancy, uses iClicker in her 600-700 student intro course to better engage with students which would otherwise be nearly impossible to do with such a large course.
Encourage all Students to Participate. Instead of getting limited responses for what I call the “front five” students (the few students that always raise their hands), you are getting feedback from all students in the classroom. This really helps student participation in large enrollment courses.
Immediately Assess Students' Mastery of Content. iClicker is a quick and easy way to gauge student’s comprehension of pre-existing knowledge to help determine what you need cover in class and what you don’t. It’s also a great way to measure the mastery of content that you’ve gone over in class or in the reading.
Improve Student Learning Using Peer Instruction. One of the more impactful ways of utilizing iClicker in class is using it for peer instruction, typically using the Think, Pair, Share model. Students are asked to answer a question individually (Think). If the results are mixed and warrant more discussion, students are asked to pair up with a neighbor or two (Pair) and discuss the topic in small groups. The instructor visits the groups, providing some clarifying hints to lead the group toward the best answer. Finally, the students vote a second time and share their thoughts on the topics (Share).
Solicit Honest Student Feedback with Anonymous Polling. Lena Hann, Kinesiology and Community Health, teaches a Human Sexuality course of around 300 students each semester. She relies on anonymous polling for students to share their personal experiences with the class. Students report that the process is very valuable and they often see that the process is very valuable and they often see that they are not alone in their experiences.
Mark Smith-Creating Class Time with iClickers