Evaluating the Effectiveness of Electronic Response Systems in Technology-Oriented Classes Ahmad Salman Abstract—Electronic Response Systems such as Kahoot, Poll Everywhere, and Google Classroom are gaining a lot of popularity when surveying audiences in events, meetings, and classroom. The reason is mainly because of the ease of use and the convenience these tools bring since they provide mobile applications with a simple user interface. In this paper, we present a case study on the effectiveness of using Electronic Response Systems on student participation and learning experience in a classroom. We use a polling application for class exercises in two different technology-oriented classes. We evaluate the effectiveness of the usage of the polling applications through statistical analysis of the students performance in these two classes and compare them to the performances of students who took the same classes without using the polling application for class participation. Our results show an increase in the performances of the students who used the Electronic Response System when compared to those who did not by an average of 11%. Keywords—Interactive learning, classroom technology, electronic response systems, polling applications, learning evaluation. I. I NTRODUCTION C LASS participation and discussion is considered one of the most important aspects in classroom learning. It is actually the only thing that separates conventional university education from distance learning. Class participation and discussions enrich the learning process and ensure the educator that the lecture materials are comprehensible and fully understandable by the students. It also allows for more points on the material to be raised through discussions which might have not been covered in the educator’s original lecture notes. Even though participation and discussions are very important, they might not always be easy and straightforward to implement in a classroom, especially in technology classes. Unlike humanities classes, the material in technology classes is verifiable through laboratory experimentation and can be either verified or falsified. This certainty in results makes the discussions and participation not subject to ones interpretation and opinion. Instead, participation is always based on the students’ understanding of scientific facts and the content introduced in the class. In this paper, we present an evaluation of the usage of an Electronic Response System (ERS) in technology class in terms of its effectiveness in increasing class participation and students’ performance. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: Section II describes related research conducted in that area. Section III describes the methodology used to conduct our experiments. In Section IV we evaluate the proposed system and analyze the results. Lastly, the paper is concluded in Section V. Ahmad Salman is with the School of Integrated Sciences, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA 22807 USA (phone: 540-568-7751; e-mail: salmanaa@jmu.edu). II. PREVIOUS WORK Several studies have highlighted the effect of class participation and discussion on the learning process. In [1], Lebow states that constructive learning can be achieved through experiences gained in class. Klemm [2] argues that the learning process is based on the skills gained in class that help retain gained information rather than the information itself. Chickering et al. [3] highlight the importance of immediate feedback from teachers to students in order for them to retain gained information. Similarly, Boyd [4] found that immediate feedback increases the chance of material comprehension and retention. Kulhavy [5] argued that the learning process is not effective and complete if students are given the correct answers without trying to find it themselves first. Even though class participation is essential to the learning process, as several studies have shown, it is not easy to get students involved and actively participate in class activities for various reasons. The study conducted by Karp et al. [6] showed that only 10% of students contribute to more than half of the class discussions and the remaining 90% mostly do not engage in class participation. Stones [7] explains the reason for the hesitation in class participation by some students to be due to the lack of confidence in their answer or the point they are making. Others do not participate out of the fear of being wrong in front of their peers. Using technology as an educational tool has been essential for the learning process for the past decade or two. Schacter et al. [8] indicates that using technology can stimulate the critical thinking ability in students. ERS usage in classrooms is becoming more popular as a mean to increase participation and provide instant feedback to the students. Hinde et al. [9] conducted experiments on several classes which uses ERS and concluded that using ERS results in better grades for the students. The main reason for that is that ERS provide the means for shy and hesitant students to participate in classroom activities and discussion without fear since their response is anonymous. Duncan [10] in a similar study found that classroom response systems are a tool to be used that will give all students a voice in the classroom and take some of the stress away that comes with not being completely sure of an answer. Hake [11] conducted a study of over 6,000 students in both clicker and nonclicker classrooms and found that students using clickers scored 25% higher on exams. Building on previous work presented, we want to evaluate the effectiveness of ERS in technology classrooms. The difference here is that we will be using a polling application, which can be installed on several platforms including smart phones, instead of a dedicated ERS devices. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Educational and Pedagogical Sciences Vol:14, No:4, 2020 291 International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 14(4) 2020 ISNI:0000000091950263 Open Science Index, Educational and Pedagogical Sciences Vol:14, No:4, 2020 publications.waset.org/10011168/pdf