Both professors and students have long been trying to find a way to improve their experiences with large lecture classes.
To that end, some professors have implemented the use of “clickers” in lecture classes to engage students.
However, unless used carefully and wisely, these clickers become a pest, doing little more than distracting from the material.
Professors using these clickers present their classes with multiple-choice questions on a large screen in the classroom. Each student then selects an answer, which can be counted for a grade.
Unfortunately, not every professor uses the technology in a way that helps students. Often, the questions can degenerate into trivia, simply another data point to include in the student’s grade. Students might focus excessively on the questions themselves, losing the forest for the trees as the concern for a good grade overwhelms the concern for learning.
However, this process, if done correctly, could be useful for both teacher and learner. Asking questions that require students to think about and engage with the material just learned encourages attentiveness and active learning. Asking them to recall a fact from memory does not.
And by looking at the number of students who get the question correct, the professor can better gauge which topics the class has comprehended and which need review.
Large classes can be intimidating, and even if a large number of students don’t understand something, the professor has no way of knowing unless some brave soul steps forward.
The clickers aren’t a problem per se. By shifting the focus of their use away from graded questions and towards affirming and deepening students’ understanding, they can become true assets.
