Audience Response System [ARS]

Following liaison with colleages in BUCS, I am pleased to inform users of TurningPoint 2008 for PC, that a new version [4.1] has been rolled out to all PCs on the university campus. For those users running this software on there personal laptops, the new version can be downloaded from: http://www.bath.ac.uk/lmf/download/32160

This version includes new default slide types and includes support for TurningPoint ResponseWare Web, a solution blogged about a couple of months ago at: http://go.bath.ac.uk/rclm.

[Update: The e-Learning team are currently thinking through case studies for implementation of ResponseWare Web and will be looking for colleagues to pilot this software in due course.]

Richard Joiner, a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, has recently been using the TurningPoint-based Audience Response System to support his teaching. The following details some experiences of usage.

“I have been using ARS in two units that I am running this semester. One is a 2nd year unit on Developmental Psychology (PS20107) with 80 students and the other is a final year unit with 30 students. I recently have been using the ‘demographic slide’ function in TurningPoint 2008 and I have found it very useful.

I used it to illustrate gender differences in playing videogames. The first step is to get the students to register their clickers as male or female, by asking them the following question.

Figure 1: Are you Male or Female?

Next, I asked them the question concerning videogames (see below)…

Figure 2: How often do you play videogames?

You then get the normal response and then you get a slide (shown) below, which breaks it down into males and females.

Figure 3: How often do you play videogames? (demographic breakdown)

The students were very impressed and it illustrated the point nicely. Obviously you can pick any grouping variable (i.e. course, age etc).”

If you would like to see how you might incorporate this type of slide into your own teaching and/or would like to find out more about the ARS, please do get in touch with Nitin Parmar in the e-Learning team, either on 01225 384 392 or via email at e-learning@bath.ac.uk

One of the problems of running a pilot of a highly popular Audience Response System (ARS) at the University of Bath is that demand can sometimes outstrip supply.

Our colleagues in the Audio Visual team have reported that to date there have not been too many booking clashes, but that there have been a few. Clearly, it is only a matter of time before clashes become a more frequent occurrence.

Whilst we are exploring the potential of building in extra capacity to our offering [currently we can offer 200 clickers, split into five bags of 40 clickers, each with a USB RF receiver], we are exploring other, novel approaches. As such, I was quite interested to read about ResponseWare Web, a new product from Turning Technologies.

ResponseWare Web is a web browser-based application that allows students to submit to questions to interactive Microsoft PowerPoint slides questions via devices such as the Apple iPhone, a BlackBerry or a laptop. The solution works seemlessly with the software currently installed on all BUCS-maintained PCs, TurningPoint 2008 – I would assume that it is a plugin.

Use of ResponseWare Web can be combined with the clickers that we currently use at the university, allowing for the potential of lecturers not being limited by the clickers as to the number of responses that they can receive. I stress that this is an informational post, but I am excited by the potential of such an approach.

Time to get a demonstration of what ResponseWare Web can do!

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.

Following discussions with colleagues in the School of Management, the TurningPoint software has now been installed in the follow (non-GTA) teaching rooms:

• 8W 1.25
• 8W 1.28
• 8W 3.13
• 8W 3.14
• 8W 4.2

I am very grateful to the School of Management PC Support Team for their help with this.

As a reminder, the TurningPoint 2008 software is available on all PCs in GTA rooms and in the Library. This excludes the Sun Ray machines dotted around the campus. It can be installed on staff desktop PCs by contacting the departmental IT Supporter. Additionally, the software be downloaded from this website from the menu on the right hand side, under the title ARS software download.