i Clicker Analysis

7/25/2019 i Clicker Analysis

1/5

Just like most students on Penn State campus, I spent the first couple weeks of the

semester purchasing all the required materials for my classes. I bought stationary, textbooks, and

even software, but perhaps the oddest item on my list was the small, plastic remotetype device

called the !i"licker.# $his sole purpose of this device is to check class attendance and answer in

class questions. It costs %&' and though it is not particularly bad device, it is very much

antiquated for our forwardthinking university.

$he main issues with the i"licker revolve around its cost, failure to uphold academic integrity,

and the extra labor it induces. (or a ma)ority of students, the classes that require i"lickers are

usually in the first couple semesters, as towards the end of their college experience, the classes

are more focused and do not require the i"lickers. $herefore, once those classes are over, the

clickers essentially become useless as they have no other use and are not worth reselling as it is

cheaper to buy a new one. In addition to that, i"lickers are a huge reason that many students are

able to skip classes and allow for others to earn their grade for them. In a lecture hall with *+'

'' students, clickers are a good way to record attendance and assign graded questions as it puts

less work on the instructor. -owever, with that being said, any student can simply give their

clicker to a friend and have them click in for attendance and inclass credit. nd, as the class is

so large, professors have no efficient way to check the authenticity of the results. /astly, when it

comes to labor, whenever a professor wants to use the i"licker system, they have to bring the

entire receiver as well as any supporting software to make it work. 0n the student end, in


2/5

addition to all the student1s responsibilities, they have to remember to bring their clickers, which

are often times easily forgotten.

In order to eliminate this high cost, maintain academic integrity, and reduce labor, my

plan is to introduce a high tech solution. ccording to the Pew 2esearch "enter1s study on

students and mobile devices, 345 of all students have smart phones and 35 have laptops 6*7.

dditionally, with the trend generally resulting in more and more students using such mobile

devices, it only makes sense for schools to switch to this trend. Instead of using the clunky

clickers, students should have the option to use their smartphones or laptops for such survey type

assignments. (or this service, professors should use online survey software which correlates to

mobile applications available on both cell phones and laptops. $his would allow for a much

seamless and effective transgression of technology as students would no longer feel the hardships

felt by the i"licker technology. In an ideal situation, professors would have installed software on

their computers that could receive input from the mobile applications. 0n the student side, they

would simply need to bring their mobile device, which many students do anyways, resulting in

no extra strain on the student or professors. 0bviously, it would not be possible to implement a

completely working solution instantly as it requires change on both the professor end and student

end. In order to compensate for this, I would recommend that this pro)ect be rolled out slowly.

(or the first year, the university could implement a solution where they accept both clicker

responses and mobile responses 6as the i"licker software has the ability to accept both as an

input though it is paid7. $hen, as soon as a huge ma)ority of people have completely stopped

using clickers, we could completely abandon them and switch to a free option such as 8ahoot. In

the long term, students and teachers could use this free software to interact in the classroom

setting allowing for better, more integrated classroom experience.


3/5

In comparison to the current system, my solution serves to be a better replacement in

cost, academic integrity, and labor. Starting in terms of cost, on the university side, in the long

run, the university saves money on i"lickers. ccording to the i"licker website, a base costs

%9''. s these bases can break, have technical issues, and overall issues, they require

maintenance, which can be very expensive. :ith my solution, simply software is used, removing

the issue of the i"licker base system cost as all professors have computers. 0n the student end,

for the initial roll out of the i"lickers, the cost would be between %*'%9' for their college

experience as they would be charged based on how much they used the service. $hen, as

i"lickers are slowly rolled out, the cost would be ;ero as many services, like 8ahoot, do not

require the use of paid services.

In addition to cost, for academic integrity, the mobile system serves to be a much better

replacement as well. Students are fairly comfortable giving their i"lickers to friends to click in

with because they have no other real use for them so it won1t matter as much. -owever, when it

comes to mobile devices like smart phones and laptops, many of these same behaviors would

stop. Students would not be comfortable giving their friends their cellphones or laptops because

they use these devices // of the time and they have lots of private data. In addition, it would

logically cause errors as friends could not contact each other as one person would have both

phones. s a result, a service require mobile devices would be much more useful as issues in

clicker sharing would almost completely be removed.

/astly, in terms of labor, the new system would be very much beneficial to both

professors and students. (or professors, no longer would they need to carry a base system for the

clickers. Professors could simply install software on their laptops and run the i"licker

information on them. s professors already do this, by using the software on the computer, they


4/5

would be able to remove a huge hurdle that comes in the way of effective teaching.0n the

student side, the entire issue of clicker misplacement would be gone. DE.


5/5

=Increase 2esponse 2ate and Fuality.=Increase Response Rate and Quality. Gniversity of"alifornia at Herkeley, n.d. :eb. '@ Aov. '*+. BhttpsCDDteaching.berkeley.eduDincreaseresponserateandqualityE.

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i Clicker Analysis