A Review of Existing Audience Response Systems (Clicker) Technology for Formative Assessment in Introductory Statistics

• Activity Number: 196
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 2, 2010 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Josh Bernhard+ and Amy Froelich* and Ulrike Genschel
• Companies: Iowa State University and Iowa State University and Iowa State University
• Keywords: Audience Response System ; Statistics Education ; Clickers

Abstract

Introductory statistics courses are often taught in large classroom environments with enrollments of 80 or more students. Unfortunately, this environment often inhibits immediate feedback between students and instructor. Audience Response Systems have become an effective way to obtain, evaluate and record students' responses to questions and discussion topics instantly in many fields of study. As these devices increase in popularity, more options are available for teacher and student use. We evaluate and compare the capabilities of different types of audience response systems, as well as potential tribulations to determine which type of device is most suitable for use in the classroom and for conducting formative assessment in an introductory statistics course. We will provide an overview and summary of the pros and cons associated with the different types of available systems.