Experiences with Classroom “Clickers” in Introductory Agronomy Course

1. Experiences with Classroom “Clickers” in Introductory Agronomy Course Ken Smiciklas* and Aaron Moore Department of Agriculture – Campus Box 5020 Illinois State University Normal, IL USA 61790-5020 Introduction For the past three years, the introductory agronomy course (AGR 150, Principles of Agronomy; average student enrollment of 65) at Illinois State University has required the purchase and use of an interactive audience response system for all students (“clickers”; Figure 1). Illinois State University has selected TurningPoint from Turning Technologies as the standard platform. The TurningPoint audience response system integrates 100% into Microsoft PowerPoint and allows students to participate in lectures by submitting responses to questions (Figure 2). Since each student has a unique clicker ID, these responses can be graded as a quiz, or just used to gauge student comprehension of lecture concepts. Illinois State University is in the process of investigating the use of clickers and students’ clicker perceptions, and to document the relationship between these factors with actual class performance. As part of this process, students enrolled in AGR 150 have been surveyed in Fall 2009 semester (Table 1). Discussion The use of clickers in AGR 150 is a graded course activity. (Figure 3). The instructor hypothesized that required clicker use will encourage daily student attendance and stimulate student interest in the lecture topics. Figure 3. AGR 150 clicker policy – taken from course syllabus at Illinois State University Figure 4. Selected data taken from AGR 150 student survey at Illinois State University Results Table 1. AGR 150 student survey responses of “clicker” use at Illinois State University for Fall 2009 semester (n = 78). Figure 1. Two types of “clickers” used by AGR 150 students at Illinois State University. Findings: Based on a student survey of Fall 2009 AGR 150 students from Illinois State University (n = 78), the authors conclude that: Students were comfortable in the use of clickers in a classroom setting at Illinois State University (Table 1). The use of clickers promoted student attendance – especially since the clickers were used for daily, graded lecture quizzes which accounted for 15% of the student’s overall grade (Figure 4). The use of clickers helped to stimulate student engagement with lecture topics, although this relationship was not as strong as attendance effect. Student interest in topics related to agronomy was also positive (Figure 4). The majority of AGR 150 students would take another class that used clickers at Illinois State University (Figure 4). Figure 2. AGR 150 students participating in a graded clicker quiz question at Illinois State University.