Open-Ended Response Systems
An open-ended student response system is an electronic service or application that lets students enter text responses during a lecture or class discussion. Open-ended systems give faculty the option of collecting such free-form contributions from students, in addition to asking the true/false or multiple-choice questions that conventional clicker systems allow. Such tools open a channel for the kind of individual, creative student responses that can alter the character of learning. The great strength of open-ended student response systems may be that they create another avenue for discussion, allowing students to join a virtual conversation at those times when speaking out in live discourse might seem inappropriate, intimidating, or difficult.
Source: Educause 7 Things
Posted in: Emerging Markets Poll
bcourey 6:06 pm on September 7, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Our sets of clicker systems are the most used tool in our secondary schools bar none due to the ability to immediately assess progress, find misconceptions and most of all, motivate the students quickly…well worth the investment!
David William Price 7:20 am on September 8, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I would prefer to simply use a Socratic method and talk with students, but I see value in the response systems after watching a video about Eric Mazur who uses them in large physics classes as part of a combination of lecturing and cooperative learning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBYrKPoVFwg
I’m not a fan of clickers or cooperative learning but having watched the video, I believe he’s using them in a much more effective way than I have experienced myself.
Juliana 9:28 am on September 8, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I think the use of these systems can help to promote the engagement of students who aren’t always comfortable speaking up in class. They also are a good way of “taking the temperature” of the classroom to see what the level of understanding is currently at.
Jay 9:34 am on September 9, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The video David brought forward is a great example of this technology being coupled with many of the principles in adult education such as active learning, student engagment and dailogical approach to learning; stepping away from the teacher as a “sage on the stage” to a “guide on the side” questioning rather than just filling learners information (a top down approach).
Doug Smith 8:31 pm on September 11, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The ability to not only reveal and treat misconceptions, as in Mazur’s Peer Instruction, open-ended response systems allow for greater flexibility and dialogue while tracking information and data that can later be used formatively, for research, or for justification on larger policy decisions.