University of Washington

BACKGROUND

Founded November 4, 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest state-supported institutions of higher education on the Pacific Coast. The University is comprised of three campuses in Seattle, Bothell, and Tacoma. The Seattle campus is made up of seventeen schools and colleges whose faculty offer educational opportunities to students ranging from first-year undergraduates through doctoral-level candidates. The Bothell and Tacoma campuses offer diverse programs to upper-division undergraduates and graduate students.

According to 2005 Autumn Student Enrollment, there are approximately 25,000 undergraduates and 11,700 graduate and professional students attending the University. Faculty and staff number approximately 27,600.

TURNING TECHNOLOGIES ON CAMPUS

THE BIOLOGY EXPERIMENT

Scott Freeman is a lecturer in the biology department and works primarily with students in the first course of a year-long sequence for biology majors. His large course averages around 345 students per quarter. After seeing the chemistry department effectively using student response systems in their courses, he began a series of demonstrations and workshops with different vendors that offer radio frequency technology. After weighing the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of companies, he selected Turning Technologies becoming the first professor in the sequence to start using TurningPoint® in his classroom.

Scott decided to do a fairly rigorous examination of how the students performed using the ResponseCards®. He asked daily multiple choice questions with the class split in two—one half with flashcards they would hold up and one half with ResponseCards, and compared achievement in the two sections.

Attendance was the most striking finding of the experiment. With ResponseCards and points assigned, attendance averaged 95%; using the flashcard system with identical questions, they were down to 70% in attendance by end of quarter. Assigning points to students who were in attendance by tracking their ResponseCards (and the subsequent accountability) were critical factors. “I have found that increased performance is tied to winning points for attendance – because when students are in class, they end up learning more.”

In another experiment he assigned a point only when a student got a question right; in the other section he awarded points for participation if students answered all the questions. He found that students ultimately did better if they were graded on right and wrong answers.

One other significant finding was the positive impact on the highest risk students – those struggling the most coming in. These students performed better if they were in the ResponseCards section. Following the experiment, Freeman opted to drop the flashcard trial and use ResponseCards with all students.

Freeman travels around the country to share data with other biology departments. At these seminars, he emphasizes that enhancing learning is all about the questions – taking the time to write questions that will heighten students’ activity through thoughtful content.

His pedagogical approach is to start class with review questions of the previous day’s material followed by a question on the day’s reading. During the class lecture he integrates 2-3 questions about new material. At this point Scott enjoys implementing peer instruction, but not reacting to the student’s first attempt at answering a difficult, new-material question. He lets them talk to each other and respond again. The results are often 40-50% the first time, but after peer interaction, the second response often jumps to 80-90% correct.

CLASSROOM SUPPORT – In and Out of the Lecture Hall

Randy Jackson is the Assistant Director with Classroom Support Services, overseeing over 300 classrooms and serves as a Technical Services Manager where he supervises the technology installations in classrooms. Randy and his team began a large scale implementation of TurningPoint over a year ago, with some isolated usage on campus before that point. The University of Washington purchased a campus-wide license and set TurningPoint student response systems as the standard on campus, which has been instrumental in widening its usage in many capacities.

“I first saw TurningPoint as a way to support and enliven large lecture environments, a way to bring added value to being on campus,” said Randy. “But I was thrilled to see parties of all sizes begin to express interest in and out of the classroom.”

A variety of administrators and faculty across campus found new uses – far beyond Randy’s original expectations. Some professors found that TurningPoint helps keep autistic children on task; faculty in environmental health and safety find it to be a good training tool for scenarios and case studies to explore alternative solutions; the university’s president has used TurningPoint in outreach to Seattle-area business leaders to gather opinions about the university’s role in the local community and the state; and many more!

THE VETERAN

Bill Zoller has been a professor of chemistry for 36 years and has taught over 24,000 students in his career on chemistry or nuclear chemistry. In classes of over 300 students, Zoller is skilled at finding teaching techniques that keep students in his class – and his track record speaks volumes. During registration, Bill’s classes always fill up in a matter of hours, and his drop-out rates are stellar. He’s thrilled to see the enthusiasm for his classes even grow.

In March 2005, a Turning Technologies representative visited Bill to introduce him to the TurningPoint student response technology. He eventually chose the Radio Frequency ResponseCards and began using TurningPoint in all of his classes.

Bill has now created over 500 content questions and 4,000 lecture slides, But Bill is most passionate about the pedagogy of how to write and ask the questions. He wants to train students to think about a subject, look at it from different angles, and not depend on rote memorization. Using TurningPoint, he can attack that approach of teaching by even just asking the question backwards.

Bill also makes questions difficult to give students a lesson in reading – not just chemistry. He’s enjoyed taking his class to a higher level – harder coursework, quizzes and exams – with better results.

At the beginning of the quarter, Bill has students answer by their gender and compare results. In one memorable instance, the females were out performing the males, and a student stood up in class and encouraged his male peers to “get with the program!” Bill was thrilled to see the class begin to compete to answer questions quickly and correctly.

“I always had a high attendance rate, but now it’s over 98% every lecture,” Bill shares. “Students are so excited about how the class is structured that I have the lowest drop rate in department – less that 1%. To illustrate the importance of that number, the departmental average is over 35% by the end of the quarter.”

CONCLUSION

All three gentlemen at the University of Washington have found that TurningPoint provides a positive experience and allows faculty and administrators the opportunity to enhance their presentation style. Whether initiating peer interaction, heightening attendance, involving the community, or just making class fun, many educational initiatives are being met with this single technology.

“With TurningPoint, you’re getting a real esprit de corp among the students, and when you’ve done that, you win as a teacher,” concluded Zoller.

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