Higher Education Case Study

Ohio State University Physics Department

Bill Reay has been a professor for decades at both Ohio State University and Kansas State University and has returned to teaching at Ohio State as an emeritus professor. He is a veteran educator that is compelled to change the landscape of education for lecture classrooms through the usage of audience response systems. He states that lectures are here to stay because they are economically efficient. However they are "not necessarily learning efficient." Because of this, Bill has spent years researching active learning techniques for the lecture hall.

TurningPoint's student response system transforms the standard lecture PowerPoint® presentation into a powerful interactive presentation and engages students in active learning. Professors display interactive polling questions that allow every student in the class to select a response via their wireless ResponseCard® keypads ("clickers") and transmit the data immediately to the presentation.

With over six years of experience using response systems in the classroom, Bill became increasingly convinced that their usage could have a major impact on students' education if used in a proper manner. However, normal use didn't have any scientific methodology behind it, and the systems aren't often used to full potential.

His objective: use a research-based methodology to turn a lecture hall into a learning-based environment.

"Most learning is context dependent. My research with student response systems compares the difference in using only one type of question, versus the usage of sequences of questions, all on the same concept bit with different ‘surface features' so that each question looks different." Bill states that somewhere in the middle of the sequence, students can pick up the concept.

The second advantage of using question sequences is, "If you use one question and all students get it, you may be wasting their time. If none of them get it, then how do you know they've got the concept? Even after a subsequent discussion, how do you know?" His research indicates that you must ask at least one more question that looks different. The recommendation is to cover a topic in a series of 2-4 different-looking questions.

Audience response systems can be used as a formative assessment tool where the lecturer and students can see where there is a knowledge gap. If students selected a variety of answers as opposed to only the right answer, more instruction has to be done. Bill's research indicates that if you deliver only one question followed by discussion, it's not perfectly clear if the message has gotten across. The answer: instructors should modify lectures in real time based on the answers. The pattern should include review, asking additional questions, further discuss and finally a revote. "Many techniques can be used to extend the discussion if the message for a particular concept or educational item has not gotten across."

There are several methodologies for Bill's research of question sequences. So far, he has developed sequences to cover all major concepts in the electricity and electromagnetism quarter of introductory physics.

In Calculus-Based Introductory Physics, there are so many students at Ohio State that each quarter there are two lecture sections for the course. For his research, the department utilized TurningPoint's audience response system in one section and not the other. They compare student performance using pre- and post- testing on concept inventory exams on common exam questions.

The research also looks at the affective reactions of the students who used TurningPoint's ResponseCard "clickers" through a survey at the end of the quarter. How do they feel about using the system? Do they feel there are benefits? Does using a student response system help to stay focused? Does it help the learning process?

Although Bill and his team are only in the third quarter of the research, the results from the last two quarters are extremely positive. Students that used the response system have consistently scored better on concept inventories, even though they only saw the sequences once in the lecture. Some sequences they hadn't even seen in 10 weeks!

In regards to how the students feel about the classroom integration of TurningPoint, the students are asked to respond using a likert scale to the phrase "I like using the voting machines" with a scale of Like (+2) , Didn't Like (–2). The results were a staggering 1.79/2.0.

For the questions related to how the response system helped them learn, encouraged focus, and if students would recommend ResponseCards, the results were almost all over 1.70. Bill and his team were scientific in their surveys, trying to remove bias by asking both positive and negative questions about the students' feelings about the integration of TurningPoint. The results were the same. Bottom line, Bill says, "The students really like the technique."

Now that Bill is in the third quarter of this research progression, he has written a proposal to develop enough question sequences to cover the entire year of physics—not only for use at Ohio State, but at other colleges as well.

What Bill wants to see is the question sequence philosophy fully vetted, assessed and proven to be effective. His goal is to build enough questions to populate introductory physics and engineering courses nationally and internationally. Through continued scientific research, he wants to prove this methodology to be reliable and valid for all groups, including women and minorities.

This general summary of Bill's research does not accurately depict all of his scientific research methodologies. Turning Technologies is committed to supporting the research and movement to develop best practice models for incorporating student response systems—sharing effective methodologies and anecdotal proof of its classroom effectiveness will benefit all users, present and future.

Bill Reay is the committee co-chair of the Ohio State team who opted for the classroom implementation of a TurningPoint radio-frequency system. The committee's report of the results was used by other universities, and several universities adopted TurningPoint as a result.

During the last seven years, Bill has seen student response technology dramatically improve. The associated software is making the creation and evaluation of questions better. He believes that TurningPoint stands out in the industry because its "software is wonderful." After a minimal learning curve, the software "can do a lot of things and is very flexible. It's the best one on the market."

Bill is also complimentary of Turning Technologies' support team. "Often when you don't take the time to fully educate yourself about the depth of its capabilities, you'll occasionally need support, Turning Technologies replies tremendously fast. Their response is wonderful."

Bill is a strong advocate that everyone can effectively use the technology – even the sequence methodology. "With very little help, someone who has minimal experience or knowledge of the methodology can be taken to the front lines and do fairly well," he concludes. "Students really enjoy the technique and are proven to show learning gains. Learning gains from an inexperienced lecturer compared to those in one of my courses are comparable."

For more information about purchasing a Turning Technologies' audience response system for your classroom or university, contact us at 866-746-3015.