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Personal response 'clickers' for fall semester
5:31 p.m., June 16, 2006--The University has signed an agreement with GTCO CalComp to make its PRS InterWrite personal response system the officially supported "clicker" at UD. Clickers are wireless keypads used with a receiver that enable engagement, polling and verification of understanding, especially in large lecture classes. “A clicker is a bit like a television remote control,” Janet de Vry, IT-User Services manager, said. “All students in a class can simultaneously submit their answers to questions by clicking a button. The system delivers immediate feedback to students and faculty by displaying graphically how the class responded.” A faculty committee staffed by IT-User Services and the Office of Educational Assessment recommended campus-wide standardization so that students will need to purchase only one clicker for their entire UD careers and not have to pay any additional course registration fees. The committee chose the PRS InterWrite model, which offers superior functionality to others in the market and is independent of any particular textbook publisher, de Vry said. Faculty who wish to use these clickers during fall semester need to place their orders with the University Bookstore no later than July 1. To order, go to WebForms, select the "Textbook Adoption Form" and fill out the required information. Under “Textbook information”:
Those who are changing a previous order should go to the "Special Notes" section and specify that a change in a previous order from another specific vendor to GTCO Calcomp. To expedite classroom installation of receivers, specify in the "Special Notes Section" the expected student enrollment and the classroom where the device will be used this fall, if known. IT-User Services will offer "Experience Using Clickers Yourself" workshops over the next two weeks to help faculty decide whether they would like to order clickers for their students and to help in planning their use in class. Workshops will be offered again in August to help faculty with some of the more technical details of creating questions and tracking student progress. For more information go to [www.udel.edu/present]. The University will be installing receivers in large classrooms, giving priority to those rooms where faculty who have ordered clickers are teaching, according to de Vry. Faculty teaching small classrooms will be able to check out receivers from IT-User Services, 02A Smith Hall. Members of the clicker selection committee included Diane Herson and Carlton Cooper, both from biological sciences; Thomas DiLorenzo, psychology; Fred Engst, food and resource economics; and Jennifer Lambe, communications. John Hall, User Services, provided technical support, and de Vry coordinated the committee. Kathleen Pusecker, Office of Educational Assessment, joined the committee because of her interest in clickers as assessment tools. For information about how UD faculty have used another clicker system which is similar in function, go to: [www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2006/nov/biochemistry113005.html] |
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