Please Vote Now! Evaluation of Audience Response Systems – First Results from a Flipped Classroom Setting

Abstract

Many University lecturers in Germany face the challenge of teaching very large classes, sometimes including 1000 or even more students. They often have to cope with a very high level of noise, bad room conditions, an extremely low level of participation as well as interaction and feedback. Some lecturers therefore try to overcome these challenges by using technology in their classroom. Previous research has already focused on evaluating the use of audience response systems (ARS) in a traditional but very large engineering lecture. This sort of technology has proven to be an effective tool in order to e. g. increase student motivation, give them additional support in the learning process and on the other hand give the lecturer feedback about the students’ learning progress as well as possible crucial points of the lecture. This paper, however, goes one step further. It analyzes the use of ARS in a flipped classroom setting of a large engineering lecture for first-year-students. After having completed almost two thirds of the flipped classroom lecture, students were being questioned about their experiences and opinions about the use of ARS in this particular educational setting. The standardized questionnaire included questions issuing e. g. comprehension, motivation, frequency, enjoyment, interaction, involvement as well as usability aspects. First results show that e. g. the majority of the students feel that clicker questions foster their comprehension, motivate them to be attentive and increase the quality of the lecture. When comparing the results to findings from previous research in a traditional lecture, however, one thing becomes apparent: The evaluation of the use of ARS in the in a flipped classroom setting has turned out to be slightly less positive than that of the traditional lecture. This finding will be particularly discussed and may even call for further research in the designated field of interest. In a first step, the lecture itself will be described considering content, background and general settings. Subsequently, the survey instrument and methodology will be presented. In a third step, the results of the survey will be presented and discussed. Finally, further research fields will be identified.