Dr Richard Joiner introduced the session, which is available to watch online, by giving the audience an example of an Audience Response System (ARS), otherwise known as an Audience Voting System (AVS) or Electronic Voting System (EVS), in this instance, OMBEA, by asking them to use any mobile device they had with them to participate in answering some sample questions. Participants were able to see what it was like to respond to a question in many different ways, and to see how the responses could be displayed in bar charts, word clouds, etc.
It was mentioned by Richard that he liked to add music behind the questions, helping students feel comfortable to discuss the topic amongst themselves.
Richard linked his motivation for using technology such as audience response systems to getting students to be more active in teaching sessions and how well they learn. Audience response systems encourage students to engage in class by providing short mental breaks within the lecture allowing them to maintain focus, as well as supporting them to apply their recently acquired knowledge together with instant feedback, even in larger classes, to help their learning.
Please read the following to learn about the introduction of an audience response system here in Bath, and their effectiveness more generally.
Different uses for ARSs mentioned
- Promote active learning - help students develop a deeper understanding
- Formative assessment - to gain a rough understanding of what the students know
- Summative assessment - can be challenging and has issues such as registering the clickers, ensuring no cheating, etc.
- Interactive (revision) sessions - to lead at the pace of the students
- Unit/programme feedback - provides instant feedback with a good chance of high turnout
- Data collection - from a large collection of students with a range of experiences
How to use the University's audience response system
You can book the University's audience response system for use in your teaching from the Audio Visual Unit, and receive training on using the system from the e-Learning team.
Key questions during the session
Have you received any feedback from students?
Students are generally very positive to any form of voting system, but Richard has seen a slightly lower response rate when students use their own devices, possibly because they don’t want to run down their batteries.
Is Nick Kinnie’s project report (on use of ARS) available?
The project is still underway so the report is forthcoming
Respond
