Abstract
Audience Response Systems (ARS), also known as clickers, are wireless devices commonly used in instruction. The present study explored the effects of ARS on students’ performance in an introductory psychology course. The study also described the trajectories of students during the course. Participants in the experimental group used ARS to solve ten true/false questions throughout a three-hour lecture, held once a week. They received feedback immediately after providing an answer. The control group was exposed to the same questions in a paper-and-pencil format at the beginning of each lecture. They received feedback after seven days. The key dependent variable was quantitative performance on course quizzes and exams. Results show that students in the experimental group had statistically significant superior performance compared to the control group. Additionally, analysis of learning trajectories of students in both groups showed that the ARS group gradually progressed to higher performance, whereas the paper-and-pencil group maintained similar performance through the study. These results are discussed within the context of previous findings related to the effects of ARS on instruction. Particularly, we revisit research related to environmental affordances, learning monitoring, motivational factors, feedback density, and ecological validity.
Highlights
Audience Response Systems (ARS) are a powerful tool to enrich the experience of college education, given their potential to provide feedback to students
The largest difference between both groups was found in the quizzes before the second exam (Quiz 2), which indicates a difference in the trajectories of both groups, probably associated with a gradual attunement to the characteristics and affordances of ARS
This study showed that ARS has advantages over similar questioning strategies in the classroom
Summary
Audience Response Systems (ARS) are a powerful tool to enrich the experience of college education, given their potential to provide feedback to students. The effects of ARS have been extensively studied finding consistent effects in terms of motivation effects and mixed effects in terms of learning (Hunsu, Adesope & Bayly, 2016; Landrum, 2013; Rana & Dwivedi, 2016; Stowell & Nelson, 2007) These effects have been explained by ARS capacity to facilitate constant evaluation and student engagement. ARS, beyond their apparent simplicity, entail a rupture with ingrained pedagogical logics, such as those that underlie the passive college lecture and the separation between learning and evaluation. ARS imply logistical challenges such as organizing the delivery and collection of devices, which can be time-demanding and alter the normal routines of a college lecture Both pedagogical gains and challenges are related to the affordances of ARS (Conole & Dyke, 2004). Is it a linear trajectory of improvement? Is it immediate or gradual? Does it take time to get superior learning results using ARS?
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