18 MSOR Connections 21(1) – journals.gre.ac.uk CASE STUDY An Updated Show of Hands Helen Berrington, Learning Development/Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom. Email: h.berrington@lancaster.ac.uk Anna Karapiperi, Learning Development, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom. Email: a.karapiperi@lancaster.ac.uk Eleftherios Kastis, Learning Development/Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom. Email: l.kastis@lancaster.ac.uk Abstract It is a tried and tested technique to gauge the overall understanding of a class: a multiple-choice quiz with a show of hands for who thinks the answer is a, b or c. Although quick and easy, how much does it really measure the students’ understanding? On top of that, how useful is it as an informal formative assessment? A few students usually dominate the class and less confident students may not put up their hand, or may follow what their classmates are doing, and hence both the learner and educator may never know the individuals’ true answer. Here we discuss “an updated show of hands”, whereby students scan a QR code to take them to a real-time quiz hosted on the Moodle Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), that they can answer on their smart device. All students answer the same question at the same time, and after a set time, the correct answer is revealed and the class results for that question are then displayed to everyone as an anonymous percentage. Whilst this updated method has the obvious advantage of anonymity and the obvious disadvantage of potential technical problems, in this case study we provide a full description of the implementation and an in-depth discussion on the pedagogy and practicalities of the updated show of hands – the real-time smart device quiz. Keywords: Smart Device Quiz, QR Code, Interactivity, Digital Technology, Student Engagement. 1. Introduction As educators, we are continuously looking for ways to update teaching methods and approaches. Whilst the move to online teaching in 2020 brought with it many challenges, it also introduced new ways to embrace technology in teaching, many of which can also be used in a face-to-face classroom setting. Almost all students at Lancaster University bring a smart device to teaching sessions (since attendance recording also requires the use of a smart device) and hence we can make use of this technology within the session itself. A traditional show of hands is a well-used technique when teaching groups of students to assess the group’s understanding of a topic. It might be a multiple-choice quiz, or a true or false question, where students are asked to raise their hands in favour of a particular response. However, there are reasons why this technique may not truly assess the group’s understanding, nor act as a useful learning exercise for the students themselves. For example, stronger or more confident students may dominate, with less confident students waiting to see what others answer before raising their own hand. Some students may not even raise their hand at all, especially if they are worried about answering incorrectly in front of their peers. Cold calling techniques may not be appropriate in many teaching sessions, where there is time pressure that hinders students’ self-confidence (Lemov, 2021) as well as many other anxiety inducing factors related to cold calling. Therefore, we may not truly be assessing the understanding of all students as a group.