0.2 Frequently asked questions about the use of clickers and clicker

1. how much time should i give students to answer a clicker question?

This depends greatly on the type and difficulty of the question: in most cases, it takes students between 30 seconds and a minute to process a question and be ready to answer individually or discuss. It then takes a few (1-4) minutes for productive discussion. The level of student discussion and the number of votes in is a good guide as to when to move on. When ~3/4 of the students have responded it is often a good time to announce end is near, then sound warning gong, count down out loud, or turn lights out to indicate that discussion should stop and students should “click in”. Instructors who decide when to end the polling based on the discussion around them often wait too long. While discussion around them will continue to focus on the question, in the rest of the room discussion has often moved on to non-class-related topics, making it harder to pull students back to class material. It is useful to poll the class after several weeks to see if they feel you are giving them too little or too much time.

Using the timer in the countdown mode available with most clicker system software is usually distracting to students and instructors and can limit discussion. It is better to set the timer to the maximum count down duration or in count up mode, and then just stop the question manually when you think it appropriate.

2. how should clicker questions be graded?

Most instructors make clicker questions a portion of the total course grade; between a few % and 15% is common, although a wide variety of approaches are used. The two most common grading schemes used are giving equal credit for correct and incorrect responses (participation only), and giving greater credit for correct than incorrect responses. Some pros and cons to these grading approaches are listed below. Another approach is to give participation credit only most of the time, but occasionally grade individual questions for correct responses. There is no consensus view recommended by research or convention, but our anecdotal observations lead us to lean towards this latter grading policy of always giving credit for participation and occasionally giving additional reward for the correct answer.

Giving credit only for correct responses is not recommended as it distorts the discussion and student response strategies in undesirable directions, and it limits the type of question that can be asked. For example, you cannot ask questions with multiple justifiable answers; yet such questions can generate the most educationally productive discussions. Similarly, not having clicker questions count for any credit is not recommended. S. Freeman et al, “Prescribed Active Learning Increases Performance in Introductory Biology,” CBE Life Sci Educ. 6(2), pp. 132-9 (2007). This sends the message that questions and answers are not important, and students will not take them seriously.