Iclicker introduced on campus this fall
Polling gadget required for 2,500 students
MAGALLY ZELAYA, STAFF
More than 2,500 U of M students in some chemistry, physics, sociology and psychology classes were required to purchase a classroom remote called an “IClicker” along with their textbooks this year.
The IClicker is a “classroom response system” through which instructors are able to poll students during lectures.
The two-part system, which operates on radio frequency, consists of a hand-held remote used by students to submit responses, and a base that transmits data to an instructor’s computer.
Students press one of five buttons on their personal clicker and the instructor will immediately receive the data in a tallied format revealing the exact level of understanding in the class.
“The primary purpose is to create a classroom dynamic — especially in large lecture theatres — where you can actually interact more with the students,” said chemistry professor Norman Hunter.
Hunter expects that the instantaneous response he will receive when questioning students will give him “a better sense of where students are and whether they’re grasping the material,” allowing him to customize each lecture for the specific needs of the particular group.
As many first-year courses are infamous for having upwards of 250 students filling some of the campus’s largest lecture halls, Hunter hopes that IClickers will take “the talking head at the front of the class” out of the picture and enable “a little more two-way communication.”
The system will also be used in smaller classrooms for upper-level sociology and psychology courses. Instructors will also be able to use the clickers to facilitate quizzes and roll call.
Hunter is “enthused” about the initiation of the system into the large theatres and he is crossing over from using “coloured markers and an overhead” to PowerPoint — a change he has long resisted.
Not everyone is as optimistic. Many students unaware of the new system’s details are doubtful. “I saw it on my booklist and I didn’t even know what it was,” said University 1 student Ryan DeLong. “I don’t want to buy it unless they make me. It’s another 40 bucks.”
The IClicker will not be included in either tuition or lab fees. The device, sold at the BookStore at a cost of $37.95, adds to the growing list of expenses incurred by students this year.
Rebates are available in certain textbooks requiring the purchase of the IClicker. There will also be the option to sell the device back to the BookStore at the end of the year.
With further concerns over the ongoing cost of batteries and the nuisance of having another gadget to lug around DeLong said, “ It seems like it puts more stress on us and less on [the professors].”
As this is a trial year for the IClicker, review meetings will be necessary to “talk about what worked well and what didn’t work well,” said Hunter. “We will evaluate the successes and failures.”
The IClicker has been used at St. Mary’s University in Halifax since 2001, and is now in use at universities across Atlantic Canada, Ontario and Saskatchewan.
