Classroom Response Systems (CRS) are devices that are relatively inexpensive and easy to use, yet allow full and anonymous participation by students while providing immediate feedback to instructors. These devices have shown promise as a tool to increase engagement in learners, an outcome that would be particularly useful among middle level learners. This study assessed the ability of CRSs to promote content among suburban, middle level students in science class, and it is the first known study of CRSs that used an alternating treatments design to improve the reliability of the findings. The study also assessed the acceptability of the technology. Quiz results did not support claims that that students learn more when using CRSs, but acceptability responses indicated that students preferred CRSs to traditional questioning practices, that students perceived their learning as greater when using CRSs, and that students felt somewhat lower levels of anxiety when using CRSs for review. / School of Education / Instructional Technology (EdDIT) / EdD / Dissertation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "May, 2007." Includes bibliographical references. Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Yes / Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of factors such as attention, preparation, participation, feedback and engagement on the student learning performance. Design/methodology/approach Students of an undergraduate business course of a British university took part in the survey. The survey questionnaire was distributed to students during the revision week of the course and a total of 61 valid responses were gathered from them. The linear regression analysis using statistical package for the social sciences was performed to analyse the data. Findings The results indicated the significant relationships for all six hypotheses. The model explains variance of 43.2 per cent in learning performance, which indicates that independent constructs contribute significantly on the research model's performance. Research limitations/implications First, the sample only provides the students' views about the use of clickers in the classroom setting. Second, the sample size for the gathered data is small. Third, the variance explained by the research model is reasonably moderate and hence can be improved further. Originality/value This is the first study to explore the impact of factors such as attention, preparation, participation, feedback and engagement on the student learning performance in the UK educational setting.

Yes / As more and more institutions are integrating new technologies (e.g., audience response systems such as clickers) into their teaching and learning systems, it is becoming increasingly necessary to have a detailed understanding of the underlying mechanisms of these advanced technologies and their outcomes on student learning perceptions. We proposed a conceptual model based on the technology acceptance model to understand students’ use behavior and satisfaction with clickers. The valid response from 138 second-year business students of Digital Marketing module taught in a British university, where clickers are extensively used in the teaching and learning process, made the basis for data analysis. The results provided a strong support for the proposed model with a reasonably adequate variance (i.e., adjusted R2) of 67% on behavioral intentions and sufficiently high variance on use behavior (i.e., 86%) and user satisfaction (i.e., 89%).

Yes / Classroom response systems (clickers), in their various forms, are widely used across disciplines, demonstrating effectiveness across a range of different educational settings. However, only a few literature reviews on this technology have been undertaken in general, and no review has yet been performed on this topic in the business and management context. Realising the existing research gap, this article reviews 33 clicker-related studies from the business and management discipline that are largely focused on student perceptions and outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical and balanced review of articles from the business and management discipline on various themes such as learner's engagement, performance, learning, participation, satisfaction, feedback, attendance, enjoyability, motivation, and interactivity, to name a few. The review also provides a brief account of lessons learned from the literature published in other disciplines and recommendations provided by studies from the business and management discipline.

Published Article / The purpose of this paper is to provide a discussion of the educational potential of a blended approach to teaching and learning in the context of the challenges related to mastering basic concepts in mathematics at higher education level. Based on the results of the application of blended learning and teaching for two consecutive semesters at a university of technology, their potential to support meaningful learning of undergraduate mathematics is discussed. The use of clickers, minute and muddiest point papers and board work as educational tools with incomplete sentences as evaluative tool, are discussed. The conclusion is that a blended approach to teaching and learning has many benefits when applied appropriately for a particular context. The lecturer's attitude remains vital for successful implementation of technology-enhanced strategies.

Instructional technologies can be effective tools to foster student engagement, but university faculty may be reluctant to integrate innovative and evidence-based modern learning technologies into instruction. It is important to identify the factors that influence faculty adoption of instructional technologies in the teaching and learning process. Based on Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory, this quantitative, nonexperimental, one-shot cross-sectional survey determined what attributes of innovation (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability) predict the probability of faculty adopting the audience response system (ARS) into instruction. The sample for the study consisted of 201 faculty who have current teaching appointments at a university in the southeastern United States. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine the attributes of innovation that predict the probability of faculty adopting the ARS into instruction. The data indicated that the attributes of compatibility and trialability significantly predicted faculty adoption of ARS into instruction. Based on the results of the study, a professional development project that includes 3 full days of training and experiential learning was designed to assist faculty in adopting ARS into instruction. Because the current study only included the faculty at a single local university, future studies are recommended to explore a more holistic view of the problem from different institutions and from other stakeholders who may contribute to the process of instructional technology adoption. The project not only contributes to solving the local problem in ARS adoption, but it is also instrumental in promoting positive social change by fostering evidence-based teaching strategies and innovations that maximize student learning.

Incremental idle clickers is a genre of games where gameplay revolves aroundsimple interactions like clicking the screen repeatedly to accumulatecurrency. The clicking action is often automatized by the game. This thesisinvestigates qualities that make interactions in incremental idle clickerscompulsive and motivating. The incremental idle clickers genre adoptsmechanics and interactions that were experienced as compelling, motivatingand anxiety-inducing. The “idle” mechanic allows the game to run withoutplayer interaction and proved to be central in relation to the playerexperience. Through a user-centered design-process, the compulsive andmotivating nature can be suggested to emerge from three major experiencesof the genre, “Monotony”, “Intrusive omnipresence” and “Demanding”. Theresult includes a discovery of the ambiguous tension and balance betweeninteractivity and interpassivity in the genre. Finding this balance may provebeneficial to the player experience. I identified ethical challenges concerningthe game depriving players of satisfying gameplay.

Technology is enjoying an increasingly important role in many collegiate pedagogical designs. Contemporary research has become more focused on the ways that technology can contribute to learning outcomes. These studies provide a critical foundation for educational researchers who seek to incorporate and reap the benefits of new technologies in classroom environments. The aim of the present study is to empirically assess how combining an active, collaborative learning environment with a classroom response system (colloquially called “clickers”) in a postsecondary setting can influence and improve learning outcomes. To this end, the study proposes an instructional design utilizing two feedback response-formats (clickers and flashcards) and two response methods for answering in-class questions (collaborative peer instruction and individual). The theoretical bases that provide the academic structure for the five instructional conditions (control, clicker-response individual, clicker-response peer instruction, flashcard-response individual, and flashcard-response peer instruction) are the generative learning theory and social constructivism. Participants were 171 undergraduate students from an Educational Psychology subject pool from a large Southwest university. The researcher used a two-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with two treatments (response format and collaboration level) as the between-subjects factors; students’ posttest scores as the dependent variable; and pretest scores as the covariate. Results showed no significant main effects; however, the study produced statistically significant findings that there was an interaction effect between the use of clickers and a peer instruction design. To follow up the interaction, the researcher conducted tests of the simple effects of response format within each collaboration condition, with the pretest as the covariate. Results showed that for students who collaborated, clickers were better than flashcards, whereas when students worked individually, there was no difference. This study builds upon existing studies by using a stronger empirical approach with more robust controls to evaluate the effects of a variety of instructional interventions, clicker and flashcard response systems and peer instruction on learning outcomes. It shows that clicker technology might be most effective when combined with collaborative methods. The discussion includes implications, limitations, and directions for future research. / text

abstract: Clickers are a common part of many classrooms across universities. Despite the widespread use, education researchers disagree about how to best use these tools and about how they impact students. Prior work has shown possible differential impacts of clickers based on demographic indicators, such as age, gender, and ethnicity. To explore these topics a two-part project was designed. First, a literature review was completed focusing on past and current clicker practices and the research surrounding them. Second, original data, stratified by demographic characteristics, was collected on student perceptions of clickers. The literature review revealed that not all uses of clickers are created equal. Instructors in higher education first introduced clickers to enhance traditional pedagogies by simplifying common classroom tasks (e.g. grading, attendance, feedback collection). More recently, instructors pair clickers and novel pedagogies. A review of the identified benefits and drawbacks for students and instructors is provided for both approaches. Instructors can use different combinations of technological competency and pedagogical content knowledge that lead to four main outcomes. When instructors have both technological competency and pedagogical content knowledge, all the involved parties, students and instructors, benefit. When instructors have technological competency but lack pedagogical content knowledge, instructors are the main benefactors. When instructors have pedagogical content knowledge alone, students can benefit, but usefulness to the instructor decreases. When instructors have neither technological competency nor pedagogical content knowledge, no party benefits. Beyond these findings, recommendations are provided for future clicker research. Second, the review highlighted that clickers may have a differential impact on students of different demographic groups. To explore this dynamic, an original study on student views of clickers, which included demographic data, was conducted. The original study does not find significantly different enthusiasm for clickers by demographic group, unlike prior studies that explored some of these relationships. However, white students and male students are overrepresented in the group that does not enjoy clickers. This conclusion is supported by visual observations from the means of the demographic groups. Overall, based on the review of the literature and original research, if instructors pair clickers with validated pedagogies, and if researchers continue to study clicker classrooms, including which students like and benefit from clickers, clickers may continue to be a valuable educational technology. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Biology 2020