Using student mobiles as voting devices with TurningPoint ResponseWare

Dr Siân Lindsay 27th October 2011Turning Technologies User ConferenceUniversity of Surrey

What is this?

EVS classroom circa 1966

EVS classroom 45 years later…

EVS...The Future?Allows for free-text answers, anonymity maintained and lecturer can feedback to individual devices

Eliminates practical/logistical and maintenance problems of present EVS

A TurningPoint product = integration with PowerPoint

Can be used in parallel with regular clickers

ResponseWare (RW)

EVS Practitioners’ View of RW

Most people (72%) expressed positive notions about being asked to use their mobile device to vote with

EVS Practitioners’ View of RW• 71% able to use their mobile device, 4% were unsure and 24% unable to take part – had poor mobile phone reception and denied access on certain mobile browsers

• 14% said they experienced known technical problems, e.g. need to refresh the screen following each question

• 75% of respondents said there were differences in using their mobile device:1. seeing graphs on their device’s screen2. being able to provide free-text answers3. being less immediate than the clickers where you just

press and go

What do you think of ResponseWare?Let’s try this now.

Please connect your mobile device to the Internet and go to

www.rwpoll.com - Session ID is MOBILE

- You can enter your name if you want (not compulsory)

In this demonstration I’ll be using ResponseWare and TurningPoint Anywhere

together to enable two-way feedback. You can simply use RW with PowerPoint

too.

+

In an ideal world, how would you like to use your mobile device(s) in a teaching and learning context?

“(using my mobile) gave me a sense of freedom because I know my mobile phone, there’s that level of comfort...you’re able to use your own stuff without having to rely on the clickers”

“I liked that people weren’t put at a disadvantage if they didn’t have the right type of mobile or were on pay as you go contracts and had to pay to get online”

“got me to know how to use my mobile phone better!...I had no problems with it, I was fine. I preferred using my mobile phone actually rather than clickers...I don’t know why...maybe it’s because it’s my own mobile phone...I’m just used to it I guess ”

“while the questions were coming up in succession we didn’t really have time to get distracted, so it wasn’t a problem for me”

City Students’ View of RW

“I didn’t have feelings either way really, but

maybe my mobile was slightly more

distracting...on one occasion a text message

came through which led to me reading it after the

questions were asked...if my mobile had been in my bag or pocket it wouldn’t

have been touched. This is a failing on my part, but

one brought on by the use of these phones.”

“I couldn’t access the Internet on my mobile phone without having to pay for it and that’s pretty much the only reason I didn’t use it...simply cost (if using mobile) I probably would have checked a text message on my phone irrespective of where it was...in secondary school and ‘A’ levels and stuff you weren’t allowed phones in your pocket let alone out on the table at University, right there in front of you using it for lectures! ”

City Students’ View of RW

Lecturer View of RW: Cengiz Turkoglu from City University

Lessons Learned1. Mismatch between student expectations and student

experience, students have their own technology and seem happy to use it

2. Pros: Simple, familiar, anonymous, free-text, two-way feedback, PowerPoint integration, parallel use with regular clickers

3. Cons: dependent on Internet connection (ideally free WiFi so students not out of pocket), not all students will have right mobile device/browser, limited characters for text feedback, ideal if also supported voting by text, Twitter(?), pricing model could support ad-hoc use

4. What Next? – keep exploring features, use more in conjunction with TurningPoint Anywhere (to enable two-way feedback)

AcknowledgementsMike CameronEducational Development and e-Learning Team, Newcastle University

Nitin ParmarLearning Technologist University of Bath

Kate ReaderSenior Educational Technologist City University , London

Ajmal SultanyResearcherCity University , London

Paul JennerTurningPoint Account Manager Reivo Ltd.

Thank you for listening.Any questions?sian.lindsay.1@city.ac.ukhttp://uk.linkedin.com/in/siany #sianylindsay

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