CLICKERS: ENABLING VALUABLE DIAGNOSTIC FEEDBACK TO BOTH STUDENTS AND INSTRUCTORS IN REAL TIME Iouri Belski School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Melbourne, Australia iouri.belski@rmit.edu.au Regina Belski Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition La Trobe University Melbourne, Australia r.belski@latrobe.edu.au ABSTRACT This paper is devoted to the investigation of the capability of classroom response systems (clickers) in enabling real- time diagnostic assessment during tutorial sessions. The study involved two hundred and seven students who were divided into five tutorial groups. Clickers were used to conduct the Task Evaluation and Reflection Instrument for Student Self-Assessment (TERISSA) procedure in order to anonymously reveal students’ individual evaluations and reflections to the whole class. It was discovered that 62% of the surveyed participants were able to clearly identify the study areas that required their immediate attention and that 54% of the surveyed addressed these learning needs. It was also found that the use of clickers with TERISSA enabled tutors to obtain a real-time evaluation of students’ prior knowledge and their misconceptions. Differences in prior knowledge and misconceptions between five tutorial groups were also established. KEY WORDS Clickers, diagnostic assessment, feedback, TERISSA 1. Introduction New educational technologies offer instructors numerous opportunities to enhance the student experience and to help students learn more efficiently. Classroom response systems, known as clickers, have been successfully used by educators from many disciplines. In essence, clickers are radio frequency transmitters that can communicate with a receiver, which is connected to the instructor’s computer. Clickers can be distributed to individual students during a class and can be used to collect student opinions through multiple choice questions and short typed messages. When used in the classroom, clickers offer two important advantages: (i) anonymity of individual response and (ii) real-time information on the opinions of all respondents. Many authors have previously reported on their positive experiences with clickers. Levesque, for example, deployed clickers to facilitate the development of problem-solving skills in science students [1]. She used clickers during lectures in order to engage students in problem-solving activities and peer discussions. She discovered that students, who used clickers during lectures more often, performed better on exams than students who used clickers less frequently [1]. Micheletto observed that, as a result of introducing clickers into her classes on business ethics, students became more engaged in study and improved their reflective practice [2]. Smith et al. reported on the ability of clickers to help in engaging students in peer discussions that enhanced their understanding of study materials [3]. Lincoln studied the effectiveness of clickers in large classes of marketing students [4]. He formulated the following five main challenges of teaching large classes, which he addressed deploying clickers: 1) ensuring student attendance, 2) keeping student attention, 3) student active participation in learning, 4) providing instant feedback to students, 5) helping instructors in managing significant volume of course maintenance. Some authors have suggested that clickers need to be used cautiously, always with a clear educational strategy and with specific educational goals in mind [5, 6]. Draper and Brown specifically recommended that instructors consider clickers to implement contingent teaching: “… making teaching (the course of a lecture session) depend upon actions of the students, rather than being a fixed sequence predetermined by the teacher” [6, p. 91]. In other words, it was suggested that clickers can help in Proceedings of the IASTED International Conference Computers and Advanced Technology in Education (CATE 2012) June 25 - 27, 2012 Napoli, Italy DOI: 10.2316/P.2012.774-020 29