In the course of a 50-minute lecture on intermolecular forces, Angela King will employ all sorts of teaching tools, from the time-tested chalkboard to PowerPoint slides.
This year, King became one of several faculty members at Wake Forest University also working with iClicker, a handheld device that students use to answer multiple-choice questions by clicking on one of five buttons.
The technology is similar to what the audience uses in the TV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
In such classrooms as King's, instructors display a multiple-choice problem on an overhead projector and give students time to solve it. They answer by clicking on a button, which sends a signal to a receiver attached to the instructor's computer. The results are quickly tabulated and, if the instructor chooses, can be presented as a bar graph on a screen.
Based on the results, instructors can then decide whether to move to the next topic or review material.
Often, the results are surprising.
"There are times when I think a problem is pretty simple and there's not a clear-cut consensus," said King, a senior lecturer in the chemistry department.
When that happens, King usually asks her students to discuss the problem with their neighbors, then vote again.
"If that doesn't help, I have to stop and think about what could be tripping them up on the problem," she said.
The iClickers are used mainly in the biology, chemistry and physics departments at Wake Forest, although some other departments are using them as well. Throughout the U.S., iClickers are showing up on college campuses and in K-12 schools.
In North Carolina, instructors at Winston-Salem State and Appalachian State use them. Instructors at Salem College don't use the iClicker, but they use a similar audience-response system, as they are generically called.
At Wake Forest, some instructors have requested that students buy their own iClickers, which cost about $30 each. The same iClicker can be used in all of their classes. King used grant money to pay for a classroom set. She keeps them in a bin by the door, and students pick them up on the way to their seats.
"Get clicked in," she tells them as they settle into their seats. King teaches a chemistry course for students who are science majors or want to go to medical school. She starts each class with a problem based on material from the previous class.
Students get about three minutes to solve the problem then click in their answer.
Robert Swofford, a professor of chemistry, has incorporated technology in his classes for several years. Before using the iClicker, which he started doing this semester, he used personal digital assistants and Smart Phones to connect with his students.
The iClicker, he said, helps break up a lecture. Citing research that shows students don't pay attention after about 15 minutes, Swofford said he poses a clicker question every 10 minutes or so.
"The students love it," he said. "They think it's the great thing since sliced bread. But part of that is the novelty."
Sophomore Hillary McDonald is a student in King's chemistry class. She said the iClicker is a way for students to participate anonymously in class.
"You can try out an answer with no consequence," she said.
"You can see what you're understanding and learn where your mistakes were."
Because iClickers are registered to individual students, instructors can see whether students are participating and how they are answering questions.
Swofford gives each student who clicks in one point for participation and an extra point if they answer correctly.
Also, King finds the iClicker useful for roll call.
"If a student comes to me and says, ‘I don't understand this,' I can open my log and say, ‘Well, you haven't been to class in a week,'" King said.
lo'donnell@wsjournal.com
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