Proposal

The Clicker comprises of two components – the student response unit and the
TurningPoint software (http://clickers.ntu.edu.sg/getting.htm). The former is a
small hand held device that has 12 buttons; most buttons have 2 modes –
numbers and alphabets (figure on left). It also has a small light to indicate
feedback. This TurningPoint software when used in conjunction with
ResponseCard® student response unit, create a wireless student response and
voting system that enables educators, trainers and presenters to develop and
administer real-time assessments of student participants from within Microsoft PowerPoint. This
is a new implementation amongst the freshmen in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and
selected courses which aim to enable rapid feedback, increase in-class participation, enable faster
data collection and assessment of students, and enable efficient record and updating of student
attendance and to enhance class interaction in general.

Currently, Clickers are mainly used for collecting student responses to real-time MCQ quizzes
and in-class MCQ questions. They are individualized as they are tagged to the user (student)’s
unique matriculation numbers. After a response is sent, the colour and frequency of blinking
light on the device changes and increases respectively. The number of responses displayed on the
Microsoft Powerpoint slide increases as a result. Responses can only be made when ‘polling is
open’; there is a countdown timer to indicate time constraints to the users.

Instructions for use:

1. Press and release the "GO" button.

2. While the light is flashing red & green, enter the 2 digit channel code.
(i.e., channel 1=01, channel 21=21).
3. After the second digit is entered, press and release the "GO" button.
4. A steady green light should appear. If not, repeat steps 1 to 3.

1. Problem.

Our project’s high-level goal is to enhance interactivity of the User Interface (UI) and
low-level goal is to solve the current usability problems associated with it. We are
focusing on the student’s usage of the device instead of the instructor.

At present, the clickers merely enhance the instructor’s collection of student responses
and feedback. We feel that an interactive classroom should involve two-way interaction.
Thus, we seek to enhance student’s active participation and providence of feedback to the
instructor via the UI. As the target users – NTU student population has a reputation of
being shy to speak up in class, enabling them to use the UI to signal to the instructor in
order to post a question regarding a particular slide or offer feedback, can increase their
in-class participation. Furthermore, the current assessment system for in-class
participation is based on subjective judgment and the instructor’s memory, the UI can be
 used for the logging and tallying of student participation. This implementation can reduce
errors in memory and judgment. Participation and quiz results should be available to
student users via Edventure – the student portal.

Our project also seeks to solve usability problems with regard to the usage of the
clickers. According to the instruction and documentation of Clickers, they should display
a steady green light when activated and a blinking yellow light when a response is sent.
However, users are unsure whether their responses are sent or what response is being sent
as there is lack of distinction between the two system states and no feedback to the user
regarding their chosen response. This leads to fear and frustration in the user as their
responses are crucial to their class assessment thus leading to users sending multiple
responses. The TurningPoint software displayed on the Powerpoint slide only displays
changes to number of responses collected but does not indicate whose response was
collected.

2. Solution.

The system’s current state only allows instructor’s questions (IQ) to the students. In order
to enhance student participation, UI should allow students to post questions [?] and
participate in the lecture (P). TurningPoint can be modified to keep polling open for the
whole lecture where by students can ‘click’ using buttons for [?] or P at different slides
during the lecture. These participation numbers can be shown at the top of each slide,
thus providing feedback to both the instructor and the students about the number of
student enquiries regarding a particular topic in the lecture. The instructor can then base
on these numbers provide further clarification during or after the lecture without
disrupting the lecture. As clickers are already tagged with the students’ unique
matriculation numbers, on top of quiz results, students can also view their participation
scores (class standing) via Edventure. This will inevitably motivate students to participate
more in class, thus improving overall in-class participation.

The effectiveness of the UIs depends on their usability. To improve UI’s feedback, the
light signal should be sufficiently distinct. Before a response is sent, the UI may emit a
blinking green light to indicate that the system is ready. After ‘clicking’, the UI may emit
a steady unblinking blue light (distinct from other system states). Furthermore, to provide
feedback about the response sent, we suggest adding a small display screen on the device
that can display short messages regarding response sent i.e. response ‘1’ sent. This will
enable users to double check their responses and resend a response if errors are made. In
addition, TurningPoint can display feedback about whose response was not collected
when the system does its countdown to end of polling to serve as a reminder to users who
forget to send their responses or whose responses were not recorded.

3. Group members.

Lim Zhen Ling Samantha

Tan Siu Yan Jerena