Audience Response System [ARS]

Many thanks to those colleagues who got in touch with me following  Innovations in Learning and Teaching Week 2009. Just to let you know that the poster mentioned in my previous post is now available online through OPuS at: http://opus.bath.ac.uk/12799/

As part of Innovations in Learning and Teaching Week 2009, a number of posters are currently being displayed in the Claverton Rooms to highlight case studies of innovative practice at the University of Bath, including Teaching and Development Fund (TDF) projects and posters around the Innovations Week theme.

To highlight the ARS-related work I’ve been leading at university, I’ve created a poster entitled: Using an Audience Response System to increase student engagement and provide effective feedback in face-to-face teaching. Please do go along and take a look!

Following installation of the WordPress Mobile Plugin by the Web Services team at the University of Bath, all blogs on the blogs.bath.ac.uk domain can now be viewed on mobile devices. As my colleague Geraldine Jones has observed, “this plug-in will enable people to use their mobile devices to read our blogs as it displays the material to suit small screens”. I accessed this blog both on my Nokia E65 mobile phone and my HP iPAQ 4150 without any of the page rendering problems that I had experienced in the past.

Mobile browser screenshot

How does this development relate directly to the Audience Response System (ARS) pilot project? Users of the TurningPoint-based ARS will soon be able to scan QRCodes, located on help material within bags containing clickers, on mobile phones. This in turn would direct them to support material on this blog, thereby giving them ‘just in time’ access to help and advice.

The following is the story of the Audience Response System service at the University of Bath, since the 22nd September 2008 in numbers.

• 1, the number of National conferences / workshops that members of the e-Learning team have presented on the topic of effective use of response systems in teaching and learning
• 12, the number of different Departments or Schools who have used the equipment
• 17, the number of staff that have booked out the equipment.
• 5, the number of staff who have booked out the equipment more than once
• 32, the number of staff who have attended either one-to-one or group training sessions on how to use the ARS.
• 63, the number of staff who have attended presentations on the ARS, notably, the Director of Studies forum, PGCE tutors training day and the e-Learning practitioners forum
• 76, the number of bags of TurningPoint clickers that have been booked out in over 35 bookings.

During this academic year the e-Learning Team have been exploring the potential of using an Audience Response System (ARS) as a mechanism for giving effective and immediate feedback to students during face to face teaching sessions.

The system consists of a set of handheld voting pads which allow students to interact in a variety of learning and teaching contexts through responding to questions and viewing the aggregated results. The uses at the University of Bath include giving students feedback on their learning, and allowing students to feedback on the teaching.

How has the technology been received by staff? The initial responses from a large number of pilots have been very positive. For instance, Leah Wild and Hedley Bashforth (Social and Policy Sciences) recently used the ARS to support undergraduate lectures on Research Methods.

Leah commented: “(The) ARS allowed questions to be displayed to the whole group and also allowed students to respond anonymously. This could not have been done in any other way in the time available, or without extremely laborious counting processes”. While, Gemma Cranston, a lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who used the ARS for a mid-unit formative assessment said, “For such a dry subject, the ARS made the lecture more exciting and interesting for the students.”

How has the technology been received by students? A recent survey of Computer Science students who used in during a session indicates a very positive impact. When surveyed, 66% of a group of 45 students said that the use of the ARS “revolutionises (their) problem classes”. When asked to explain this view, one replied, “it made learning fun. When getting questions wrong it meant that I will now remember the correct answers because of the way it is presented”. While another commented, “ (it) gives you feedback (on) your knowledge and also how well you are doing in terms of the rest of the class anonymously”

A very interesting dimension for the appropriate use of the ARS in terms of the impact on learning, is as a stimulus for peer feedback. For instance, the survey of Computer Science students indicated that over 70% discussed the question with a peer after they had voted in the lecture. The inclusion of peer feedback is a very powerful learning aid, and encouragingly the use of the ARS can stimulate focussed peer feedback activities.

If you’d like further details on the ARS pilot project, including session reports and information about how you can start to use them in your teaching then please visit http://blogs.bath.ac.uk/ars/. Alternatively, get in touch with Nitin Parmar, the Project Lead, on 01225 384 392 or at e-learning@bath.ac.uk