Faculty Directions, Spring 2006 - Task Force Recommends iClicker and MessageGrid

Melanie Cooper
and Barbara Weaver

Department of Chemistry and Educational Technology Services

In January, the Clicker System Task Force with representatives from all five colleges, OTEI (Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation), and CCIT (Clemson Computing & Information Technology) reached a decision on what clicker system to recommend for use university-wide. The task force recommends the iClicker system be widely adopted. For faculty who are teaching classes where laptops are used in class, the task force also recommends using the virtual clicker feature in MessageGrid.

Clickers is the common name for an audience response system, such as that used on the TV shows Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Funniest Home Videos. A clicker system typically includes software, a receiver, and multiple remotes, and can be used in a variety of ways to improve classroom instruction (see below).

At the suggestion of Undergraduate Studies Dean Jan Murdoch, Clemson's clicker system task force was called together by Carla Rathbone, director of ETS (Educational Technology Services). The task force was charged with recommending one clicker system for use university-wide. The goal is to eliminate the need for students to purchase multiple remotes as required by their various instructors.

MessageGrid

Task force members are cognizant of the added expense that handheld clickers require of students who already have the expense of laptops and possibly a calculator. With that in mind, the task force recommends MessageGrid, a software application developed by Roy Pargas and his computer science students. Prof. Pargas provides the software for free and periodically provides training for free to any Clemson instructor. The clicker feature was added to MessageGrid at the suggestion of faculty who have been using the application for several semesters. At the request of the task force, CCIT has begun to look at best ways to integrate and support MessageGrid within Blackboard. Demonstrations and training will continue to be offered through OTEI.Check the online registration page and emails for announcements concerning these offerings. For more information about MessageGrid, contact Prof. Pargas at teech@clemson.edu.

The task force members also know that, in large classes taught in cramped auditoriums with very small desktops, using laptops is difficult, especially if the course content is technical and students' notes must include symbols and drawings. In those situations, the virtual clicker available in MessageGrid does not meet the needs of faculty or students. Valuable class time is lost while students put their notes away, get out and turn on their laptops, log into MessageGrid, and finally are ready to respond to a question posed by the instructor. Additional time is lost while they put their laptops away and pull out their notes again to continue learning new concepts or reviewing content that the instructor discovered the students had not mastered.

Clicker System Criteria

The task force evaluated a number of clicker systems, some of which were already being used by Clemson instructors such as Responsive Innovations and PRS. The primary criteria for finding the most useful system to recommend were the following:

• Cost to the students
• Radio Frequency 900 MHz to avoid conflicts with the wireless network, microphones, etc.
• Ease of use
• Sturdiness of clickers
• Ability to use any textbook (some clickers are linked directly to a specific publisher and specific textbooks)
• Instructor ability to use clickers with any software (some clickers work only with PowerPoint)

iClicker

Of all the systems under consideration, iClicker appears to meet all our criteria; it operates in the desired 900 MHz frequency and does not require the instructor to use PowerPoint; it is cross platform (operates on both PC and Mac); and the clicker itself is sturdy and easy to use. The iClicker system is not for sale yet, but that has turned out to be an advantage. Through negotiations with the company, we were able to arrange at no cost to us for Clemson faculty to join faculty at other universities in testing this new clicker system during the later half of spring semester and during the summer 2006. This spring, Melanie Cooper (chemistry), Jeff Abdelberg (horticulture), and Jeremy Tzeng (biological sciences) are testing the receivers and a small number of clickers that were available for us. At the end of spring semester, they and their students will report their experiences to iClicker. We will have more clickers and receivers for faculty to use this summer as part of the system testing.

iClicker is very easy for faculty and students to use. The clickers use three AAA batteries and provide 200 hours of use. The clicker will shut off if it detects no use, and when the clicker has 10 hours of battery life left, it will alert the user. The clickers are large enough for users to easily see the buttons in dim lighting and to easily find the clicker in the bottom of a backpack. While iClicker is associated with the publisher Bedford, Freeman, and Worth, the clickers are not linked with a specific textbook. The iClicker software floats over any application the instructor is using or can be used independent of applications. Instructors can write a question on the classroom chalk or white board or even ask the question orally. Another advantage of iClicker is that the open source software runs off a flash drive so it does not have to be installed on a computer. The receiver is connected to a computer (laptop or podium computer) by a USB cable that comes with the receiver.

At Clemson, the clickers for students and base receivers for faculty will be sold in PC Repair, which is in the basement of P&A (Poole and Agricultural Center). The cost of the clickers is the lowest on the market. PC Repair will sell them for about $30. Unlike some other clickers, there is no registration fee or recurring cost. We have not yet worked out the cost to faculty for the receivers. The vendor charges $100 for each receiver, but we will receive one free for every 100 clickers we purchase. PC Repair will add a small markup to cover their expenses associated with the sales, (shipping charges, and tax). Any instructor wanting to use the iClicker system summer or fall semesters should contact Barbara Weaver at weaver2@clemson.edu to coordinate the purchase of the equipment. Students will be able to sell their iClickers to other students when they are sure they no longer need them.