Clickers rapidly gaining popularity as 'go-to' student engagement tool

11:51 a.m., Sept. 11, 2012--The need to increase student engagement is on the rise and affects faculty members at all points in their careers. At the University of Delaware, clickers are the “go-to” tool for connecting students to course content.

Peter Rees, associate professor in the Department of Geography, became interested in trying clickers after reading "Clickers in the Large Classroom: Current Research and Best-Practice Tips," a research paper by Jane E. Caldwell. The paper concluded, "[Clickers] can be incorporated into a standard lecture course to increase interaction between students and instructor or used as part of a more radical change in teaching style toward primarily active learning in class (whether it be peer learning, debate, or other activities)." 

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Agnes Ly, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, is new to UD but not to clickers. She was introduced to clickers through her previous teaching experience at the University of California, Irvine.

Over 100 faculty members in 50 disciplines have added clickers to their teaching toolbox this fall. Since fall 2011, the use of clickers has doubled to over 13,300 students this semester. 

Whether it's a course of 18 students, like Asima Saad-Maura’s Spanish class, or 300 students, as in Diane Sisofo’s statistics and Allan Carlsen’s theatre classes, clickers are adaptable to instructional needs.

Faculty members continue to innovate their use of this simple and reliable audience response tool. They can gauge understanding, promote reflective thinking and easily collect group presentation evaluations with clickers.

Requests to use clickers have even shown up on course evaluations. Students indicate that they feel more connected to the course content and value receiving justifiable participation credit in large lecture classes. Students appreciate the investment because one clicker can be used in multiple classes during a single semester and beyond.

See the IT Academic Technology Services' website to find out more about clickers and reserve a spot at the Student Engagement Mini-Conference on Dec. 7.