Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)

BACKGROUND

Katie McDonald is an Instructional Technologist at Rochester Institute of Technology’s Online Learning Department. Founded in 1829, RIT is an internationally recognized leader in professional and career-oriented education enrolling more than 15,000 students in eight colleges. One of the many roles the Online Learning Department plays on RIT’s campus is to assist faculty in their use of technology to enhance teaching and learning across campus.

CHALLENGE

In the Spring of 2005 three RIT faculty, who were awarded RIT Provost Learning Innovations Grants, approached Online Learning—one from Biology and two from Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology/Packaging Science. They were interested in using the funding to research audience response systems and wanted to enlist Online Learning’s assistance in researching vendor companies.

Online Learning assembled a team to investigate what technology was available and did extensive research on systems used at other universities and a review of features, benefits and costs of current vendors. The team included members from both the Online Learning department, the Educational Technology Center at RIT, which provides classroom support to many faculty around campus and three faculty interested in using SRS. They all worked closely with each other to gather the research and provide assistance to all the faculty and students participating in the pilot.

The result was the pilot adoption of the Turning Technologies’ radio frequency student response system (SRS). The reliability of RF over IR along with the seamless integration into PowerPoint was a significant factor in the team’s decision. Radio frequency SRS do not require wires to be installed in the classroom because they utilize USB wireless receiver technology. Quite a few classrooms were used by the participating faculty and many faculty were shifted from one location to another through the quarter, yet no additional wire installations meant the system was easily moved from one location to another quickly, which was also seen as a significant benefit.

SOLUTION

The investigation grew into an extensive pilot involving faculty from Chemistry, Biology and Computer Software on the use of TurningPoint SRS over three quarters – fall 2005, winter 2005-06 and spring 2006 – which included over 25 courses, 60 sections, 13 faculty members and over 1,400 students.

In the fall, the RIT Pilot Team set up initial trainings with faculty to effectively kick off the program. They ensured that professors were knowledgeable about the technology and knew ways to prepare their courses for this added technology. The team found that using TurningPoint entails some paradigm shifts for faculty; it’s not just an add-on, but a way to enhance learning that should be understood to maximize effectiveness. They were determined to make sure faculty were ready, trained and comfortable before classes began and found that most of the faculty had no problem learning how to use it. On the first day of class, one of the members from the RIT Pilot Team was in each classroom that was using TurningPoint to ensure everything was set up correctly.

As a part of the pilot study, the RIT Pilot Team surveyed students during the middle and final week of class and conducted mid- and end-of-quarter faculty meetings to discuss usage and satisfaction.

They found that the professors and students alike enjoyed the interaction, and professors enjoyed the ability to make changes mid-lecture instead of waiting for an exam or a lecture to know the level of student retention and understanding of topics. Surveys also showed that students liked the anonymity that using a ResponseCard® offers in the classroom.

According to their research, they found that “the Student Response System could be described as an extension of the students’ physical ability to communicate feedback or knowledge to the instructor. Prior to the use of this technology, students were expected to rely primarily on raising their hand and voicing their ideas and opinions. Now, they have the ability to communicate anonymously through a small device that relies on radio frequency to transmit their answers to the instructor’s computer.”

CONCLUSION

Moving ahead, the RIT Pilot Team will continue to look at student perceptions of reliability, effective use, and the integration of clicker activities in class through an end-of-quarter survey for fall 2006, winter 2006-2007 and spring 2007. It is interesting that going into the second year of the pilot RIT has seen a large increase in the number of non-academic related uses of the clickers across campus for staff or administrative activities and expect this to grow throughout the next year.

An important finding from the first year of the pilot was that increased usage led to increased satisfaction. As the comfort level with the technology rose, students and faculty alike grew more satisfied and pleased with its capabilities and found it worth the time and financial investment.

According to the study, “Since the beginning of the pilot, there has been an increase in the number of students who would recommend the use of clickers in other classes, and some have particularly recommended more widespread use across campus. There has also been an increase over the last year in the number of students who felt that using the clickers helped them to verify their understanding of the material. These feelings are generally stronger and more positive from students using clickers multiple times during class.”

RIT is in the midst of its second year of the pilot study. Throughout the first year, Katie was very complimentary of the Turning Technologies team. “We were able to work with them whenever we had any issues and they were very responsive. Through the pilot, we learned a lot about how to make this technology more useful on campus, how to work with faculty, and how to make it easier on faculty and students (affordability, ease of use, etc.).”

Katie and the team are looking forward to the second year of the pilot study. “The faculty will have a year under their belt and we look forward to the results. I think clickers are a great technology to use in the classroom to increase engagement and create an active learning environment,” she concluded.

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

RIT shared a few findings from their surveys, including:

Determine if Clickers Are Right for Your Teaching Style

• Is your main reason for using clickers to enhance interactive teaching and learning?
• Are you willing to have an active classroom environment?
• Are you willing to shift discussion based on the students’ responses to a question?
• Are you prepared to devote more class time than usual to questions using the clickers?

Before Class: Prepare!

• Develop sound questions ahead of time that are relevant to the topic being presented.
• Take time to practice with the equipment you will use in class.

At Beginning of Quarter

• Explain the benefits and purpose of using the clickers, and inform students of your expectations.
• Advise students on care of clickers.
• Have a clear policy in your syllabus on what you consider cheating with clickers and identify the consequences.

Questioning Techniques and Tips

• Use a “Testing-the-system” question.
• Incorporate peer instruction activities using the clickers.
• Base some of your clicker questions on the out of class activities.
• Keep the level of difficulty at an intermediate level.

For more information about purchasing a Turning Technologies audience response system for your campus, contact us at 866-746-3015.