Clicker Cheaters

I recently brought up the use of clickers—student response systems—with my class of professors-in-training. The discussion mainly focused on how clickers can improve learning and participation, but I also mentioned how the data could be used secondarily as a way to record class attendance.

One of my students, having never had any experience of clickers, brought up  a good point: why not have a buddy work your clicker on your behalf while you are still snoozing away in your bed?

This thought occurs frequently to students.

Ultimately, there will always be students trying to game the system to slide through with less effort. 

But there are some ways to work around this that I've found helpful (and moderately successful).  Here they are:

1. Explain that colleges take attendance for the purpose of reporting to state and federal authorities.  Students therefore, may be committing fraud through click-cheating--especially if they receive any type of financial aid, scholarship, or grant.  That could apply to both students involved.

2. While the students are all scratching their heads over the first clicker question in class, take a quick head count.  Then check your response total.  If you count 25 and you're getting 30 responses, it's a good opportunity to have the fraud conversation again.  And the academic integrity conversation.  And the "do you really want to risk expulsion?" conversation.  If you have 300 students, get a TA, student, or colleague to sit in the back and count for you—perhaps holding up a card with the magic number at the back of the lecture hall.

3. If #2 occurs (and we all know that in life, #2 does happen), then start looking around at who might be managing two or more clickers.  Call them out on it—you only have to do that once to set a pretty solid boundary.  And they'll realize you are indeed looking for this behavior. Many students who try this won't think you're smart enough to look for it and thus are pretty brazen about it.

4. Perhaps this should have been #1.  Unbelievably, many students just aren't aware that such behavior is not acceptable.  Really.  More often than you think.  A LOT.  So be clear up front that you won't tolerate it and (most importantly) why you plan to be such a badass about it (integrity as a course objective).

The clicker commandment I always violate

I generally agree with the Clicker Commandments, those hard-and-fast rules for success when using clickers (student response systems).  But sometimes, the temptation to break this one is irresistible:

Thou shalt not use more than a few clicker questions per class session.

Like any good commandment, this one often must be followed if we are to stay on the path of righteousness.  But, like any good commandment, there are in fact times when it's best to break the rules.


A good example of my straying from this clicker commandment was previously discussed in the article  Practicing . . . some more in my blog Lion Tamers Guide to Teaching.  The point of that article was the need to practice basic facts frequently in order to become deeply familiar with them.  And I used the example of how I use clickers to provide rapid reviews of basic human anatomy structures in my Anatomy & Physiology course.

I set these up like a game show.  Without the fabulous prizes. Each item has a timer animation and the buzzer sounds after 10 seconds, and reveals the correct identification.  So polling is open for only ten seconds and students who have studied their anatomy are forced to recall it quickly . . . or get "buzzed."  Hmm, maybe a GONG would be more appropriate, eh?  Nah . . . do any of my students have a clue as to what the Gong Show was?!

This works great for facts that need to be memorized . . . if you have the time in class to practice with your students.  The class I use this in is my A&P Supplement course, which is specifically for reviewing and advising.  It's not the "main content" course, but an optional supplement students can take to get extra help in what is a rigorous, fact-filled course.

In my regular courses, I do stick with the notion that a few clicker questions scattered here and there is the best approach.  But for those "quick review" sessions, nothing beats the occasional rule-breaking, fast-paced "practice round" of important facts.

My clicker case

I used to think that clickers were stupid.

Wow, was that stupid.

I had some early bad experiences in worshops that used old-style clickers that didn't work very well . . . they were infrared (IR) systems that needed to be pointed directly at the receiver (which seldom works) and couldn't really handle all those responses coming in at one time.

And well, I just didn't get how it would help me or my students.

Dumb.

Extensive research has shown that clickers (student response systems) work. OK, really? Yes! Just introducing the use of clickers in your course can improve student performance by 20 % or more. Wow. That's not something I should just ignore, right?

Then I realized that the best college teachers continually get feedback from their students on whether they "get it." And a fun and easy way to do that is with clickers.

[I learned what the best college teachers do by reading the book What the Best College Teachers Do.]

And I learned that the new generation of clickers . . . the RF (radio-frequency) type . . . don't have any of the technical problems of the early types of clickers.

So I did it! And, wow, am I glad I did.

I mentioned in a recent article in this blog that I'd tell you more about my experiences with clickers in my classroom. It turns out that my friends at i>clicker . . . the type of clicker that I found works best for me and my students . . . just recently posted my experiences in a case study at their website.

So go visit my case study on their website in Faculty Case Studies (be sure to click on Biology to see my case listed). Then you'll learn more about why I'm now such a big fan of clickers!

New clicker book!

My friend Derek Bruff's new book Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments has just been released.

I first met Derek at the inaugural Clicker Conference last fall at the University of Louisville (KY) during the cocktail reception . . . where all the significant learning at any conference occurs, right?

He told me about his book and how its creation evolved . . . how he interviewed some of the best teachers using the best approaches . . . and I couldn't wait to read it! Now that I have it in my hands I can't put it down. I'm still not finished yet, but I've already learned a lot more than I knew before about the "best practices" in using classroom response systems.

Derek sees the goal of clicker use as an increase in student engagement and participation in the course . . . that is, a more active style of learning.

Here's a sample of topics from the book:

• Engaging Students with Clickers
  
  
• Assessing Students with Clickers
  
  
• A Taxonomy of Clicker Questions
  
  
• Teaching Choices
  
  
• Technical and Logistical Choices
  
  
• Why Use Clickers?

Be sure to check out Derek's blog Teaching with Classroom Response Systems.

I'll have more on my own experience with clickers . . . and what I learned at the Clicker Conference . . . in subsequent posts.