Peer feedback using clickers

Some of the Boot Camp participants have already heard me describe how I used clickers this past spring for peer feedback on presentations in my global media class. It was based on an idea I got from Ling Huang, a colleague from the chemistry department and also a Boot Camp graduate. He had students use clickers to effectively "grade" each other on presentations they gave on laboratory methods. I had students "grade" each other (using a 5-point Likert scale) on how well the student's presentation had tackled the fundamental questions of the class.

Apparently this idea is going around, because the ProfHacker column in the Chronicle of Higher Education ran a story this week from Derek Bruff, a math professor teaching a writing course for the first time, who used clickers to have his students give each other anonymous feedback on their essays in class.

I think everyone who's using it finds similar benefits: the feedback is anonymized but immediate, and it's quantified, which gives a reassuringly impersonal feel to the feedback even as the instructor can direct the discussion towards improvement right then and there. If more than half rate the thesis statement of an essay as unclear, for instance, the discussion can turn towards making it more clear without getting bogged down in whether or not any one individual thinks it is clear.

As a faculty member who's planning to try this told me, too, an instructor can gauge whether or not he's been clear on the topic at hand by whether or not the student responses are the same as his. If the entire class rates a thesis sentence clear, and it is NOT clear, then the instructor knows there's more work to be done there.

To facilitate trying out clickers in class, Faculty Computing Services is offering a "Happy Meal" try-it program with few choices and all the service provided by us. We will bring the receiver and clickers to your classroom, gather the data, and either show it on the screen for all to see or give you one of our new handheld receivers that lets you see the results in your hand. Separately from the try-it program, we are also arranging for students to be able to rent clickers from us, to make the cost of using clickers regularly in class the same as the cost of using the clicker-enabled smartphone or laptop software, if you decide to use clickers regularly.

As always, you can ask FCS more at the Faculty Support Center, in phone, by email, or in person. The use of the clickers themselves is simple; the exercises one can do with the clickers, however, have a lot of variation. And I think the variation where students give each other immediate feedback is one of the most exciting.