Clickers encourage attendance

By Ettie Berneking

Published Feb. 5, 2008

MU instructors are adopting technology allowing more feedback and interaction in the classroom.

Classroom Performance System clickers were first introduced to universities in 2004 when they were used primarily in chemistry classes. Since then, they have spread through several departments, mainly in the sciences, according to the CPS Web site.

Clickers are handheld devices that instructors can use to take attendance and ask multiple choice questions by asking students to press a button on the control. The responses are compiled and saved for the instructor to review later.

The University Bookstore has sold over 16,000 CPS clickers since they switched over about a year ago, Student and Auxiliary Services Spokeswoman Michelle Froese said.

Before CPS clickers were established as the general clicker service for the campus, several different versions and brands of the clicker could be bought at the bookstore, she said.

“This was terrible for students,” Froese said.

Students might have to buy one or two different clickers for their classes because different classes used different models, she said.

“Students were having to buy more clickers and this was something our department was concerned about and MSA (Missouri Students Association) was concerned about,” Educational Technology Specialist Guy Wilson said.

The arrangement was also inefficient for the University Bookstore, Froese said.

“The bookstore had not been happy with them,” Froese said. “There were different clicker companies and different prices.”

When the decision was made a year ago to adopt the CPS model as the universal clicker for the university, it made things a lot better for the students and faculty, Froese said.

Assistant professor Daniel Wescott began using CPS first semester of this school year in his Introduction to Biological Anthropology course. He said that normally, 100 to 200 students enroll in the course each semester.

“The CPS — or clickers — are a valuable asset because they allow me to catch problems early and to basically tailor my lectures and discussions to the needs of the particular set of students,” Wescott said.

Froese said the clickers’ biggest asset is their ability to allow instructors to connect with the needs of their students.

“It gives you an immediate idea if what you’re teaching is getting through to the students,” she said.

Wescott said he has been able to give his lectures based on the feedback he gets from the CPS.

Wescott has not been the only professor to find CPS useful. Froese said that faculty feedback has been generally positive.

“As an undergraduate in a class of 500, you usually don’t have a face-to-face connection with your professor,” she said. “Creating that connection is ideally what it was intended to do.”

Sophomore Alex Reuman said the clicker system helped his attendance in class.

“As much as I disliked the clicker, it did encourage me to go to large lecture classes that I normally would have skipped,” he said.