Festival of Learning

Open Session Limited to 20 Participants (First-Come, First-In)

NOTE: Participants are expected to bring their own devices (e.g., cell phones, laptops & tablets) to engage in this session.

Classroom response systems (such as clickers) are frequently used in large and small classes to facilitate interactive learning and student engagement. Initial technologies relied on system-specific handheld remotes, and questions were restricted to multiple choice format. However, with the advent of mobile-based technologies and more open question formats which support student creativity, there are a number of competitive platforms, each with advantages and disadvantages.

In this workshop, we will compare several of these new systems, and review their pros and cons. We will then do an interactive demonstration of one of the new systems, providing a ‘student’ experience with this platform.

Finally, participants will have the opportunity to craft a question for their own course, and a plan for classroom choreography using this question format. Participants are encouraged to bring smartphones, cell phones which can send text messages, tablets, or laptops to this session.

In this hands-on, collaborative session, participants will:
1) Describe several classroom response systems, and discuss their relative merits.
2) Experience one new system from a student perspective, including multiple different question formats.
3) Draft a question for their own course, and consider how they can most effectively use class time when working with these different question formats.


Presenters
Nienke Van Houten, Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Megan Barker, Lecturer, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University