University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: March 2, 2006

By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor

Does use of "clickers" in the classroom actually improve students' academic performance?

Or is the novelty of having the same devices as used on TV game shows worth the cost of incorporating them at UB?

Faculty members and President John B. Simpson discussed clickers—known more formally as "audience response systems"—during a presentation at the Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting yesterday.

Carole Ann Fabian, director of the Educational Technology Center (ETC), reported that UB has been conducting trials of the clickers in classrooms, as well as of plagiarism software, which assists instructors in determining the originality of a student paper, in order to determine whether UB should put them into use university-wide.

Fans of the clicker devices, now used at colleges and high schools across the country, say they give professors instant and anonymous feedback on whether or not students comprehend lecture material, as well as allowing students more participation in otherwise impersonal large-class settings. The technology that produced them—infrared signals and radio frequency—has been in use for years; U.S. schools put them into use in classrooms following their exposure in recent years on such television shows as "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"

Fabian said if recommended and approved for use at UB, the clickers would be installed into large technology-equipped classrooms first, then later in other locations throughout each campus. The ETC staff also would offer workshops for faculty on how to use the technology. Costs would range from $28 to $68 per student, depending on which version of the technology is used.

Simpson questioned whether the devices are worth the investment.

"This has an enormous 'gee whiz' factor," Simpson said. "I'm trying to think about how I would have used this in the teaching I used to do. I'm hard pressed to imagine how it would have been particularly helpful; very entertaining, but not so helpful.

"Are there data that show that this actually does significantly enhance student learning or significantly enhance students' ability to take away information as opposed to not enhancing learning?"

When Simpson asked whether most of those present would use the technology, Claude Welch, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science, replied that he would use it in his World Civilization course because it would be "far more efficient" when polling students on questions.

Scott Danford of the School of Architecture and Planning said that when he questions his classes about material to see if they've picked it up in other courses, "10 percent of the students raise their hands, while the other 90 percent sit there and go 'I don't know' because they don't want to embarrass themselves by saying 'I don't know.'"

"So if there were an anonymous way for them to be able to click in like this and answer my quick questions like that, I could see that on the screen and know whether I would have to backtrack and cover material they didn't get elsewhere," he said. "It's also useful for attendance, for quizzes in the classroom."

Simpson said that he doesn't mean to "be contrarian, but I like to think I had no trouble teaching technical material, looking at the students in my class to see whether or not they got it."

"I'm pushing these questions, not necessarily because I believe them, but because you always have to ask these things before you're going to jump off and invest in the latest technology, because if you do, there are other things you can't do."

He added that ETC and a Faculty Senate committee should investigate whether there is research regarding the impact and efficacy of the clicker technology in the classroom.

Faculty Senate Chair Peter Nickerson, professor of pathology, said the issue of whether clicker technology and plagiarism software should be purchased for campus-wide use at UB will be referred to the senate's Teaching and Learning Committee for further discussion.

In other business, the FSEC heard from representatives of the Student Association regarding two resolutions it has drafted.

The first seeks to extend weekend hours of operation for the Oscar A. Silverman Undergraduate Library in Capen Hall to give students more study time. The SA is asking that the library be open 24 hours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; current hours are until 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and from noon to midnight on Sundays.

The second resolution seeks extension of the transportation route of the green line shuttle to include the Triad Apartments on Flint Road across Maple Road from the North Campus, where a majority of residents are UB students, according to the SA.

FSEC members offered comments supportive of each resolution.

SA was to meet today with the Office of Student Affairs and the Division of Transportation to discuss the issue.