Clicker Technology: An Active Learning Approach in a Large Statistics Class

• Activity Number: 508
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 1, 2012 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Zenaida Florendo Mateo*+ and Rojiar Haddadian
• Companies: University of Manitoba and University of Manitoba
• Keywords: clicker technology ; large-class size ; energize teaching ; students' interaction ; innovative approaches ; major challenges

Abstract

Teaching statistics in a large class has inherent difficulties, the most evident of which being audience distance. The distance between the instructor and a considerable portion of the audience increases with class size. There have been studies in the past which developed strategies to energize teaching targeting large classroom environments. We endeavor to add among those studies through developing novel technology-aided, techniques in teaching large statistics classes through the use of clicker. We explore how clicker facilitates students' interaction in a large Statistics class. This study endeavors to benefit both the Department of Statistics and the University student learning quality in our large-sized Statistics courses. Consequently, its result can be used to further improve the quality of instruction as well as provide stimulating and innovative approaches in handling courses with large student enrollments. The major challenges that the faculty and students will encounter when using this technology are also explored.