Importance of PRS/Clickers

Why are Personal Response Systems "Clickers" Important?

• They help to maintain students' attention during a lecture and promote active student engagement during class.
  
• Create a safe space for shy and unsure students to participate; provide an inclusive environment.
  
• Promote discussion and collaboration among students during class.
  Encourage participation from every student and check for student understanding during class.

The above points are from Vanderbilt Center for Teaching Resources.

Personal Reponse System Overview

Here's a quick overview of how common personal response systems work.

Receivers

The two types of PRS systems in use: infrared (IR) and radio frequency (RF). There are pros and cons to each type. There is less set-up involved with RF systems (such as far fewer wiring issues), and RF systems have fewer shortcomings than the infrared systems.Infrared systems work via a line-of-sight to the receiver. Each receiver can support a limited number of students (about 40 students per receiver), so larger classes require more receivers. RF systems, on the other hand, support a practically unlimited number of students (over 2,000 students per receiver!), less wiring, and a more portable solution.

Clickers

The simplest clickers are like a TV remote: usually consisting of little more than a keypad and a small indicator light. More sophisticated clickers have displays where students can view their responses, the remaining battery life, etc. Clickers require batteries, and depending on use, batteries should last about the length of an academic quarter.

Software

PRS systems typically allow instructors to create questions either using PowerPoint or PRS software. Question types may include multiple choice, true/false, numeric, ordering, and short answer. During lectures, questions display onscreen (or the instructor can ask questions orally) and students respond by entering their answers using the clicker. Depending upon instructor preference, the results of student responses may be displayed onscreen along with the correct answer for further discussion. After a session is over, the instructor may save the results, mark them automatically, and save them to a gradebook.

The preceding information was located at http://www.oid.ucla.edu/units/tec/tectutorials/prstutorials/
UCLA Office of Instructional Development

Resource Websites

http://www.qwizdom.com/Education/Products/index.html
The Qwizdom Interactive System combines response system interactivity, customized presentations, formative assessments, and online reporting into one complete solution. Engage, motivate, and empower each individual student, by making every lesson become interactive.

http://www.irespond.com/p/index.shtml
The iRespond personal response systems (clickers) may be used in virtually any setting from a kindergarten in California to a board room in Boston. They offere Web-based solutions for those times when two audiences are in different locations.

What are "Clickers"?

Personal Reponse Systems or otherwise known as "Clickers" are classroom tools used to gather individual student responses to designated questions.