Higher Education Case Study

Simmons College

BACKGROUND

Robert Kuhn is Executive Director of Technology for Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, a nationally ranked private university with 800 faculty and 5,000 students where more than half are enrolled in its graduate schools. Simmons's graduate programs are diverse: students can select studies in management, social work, library and information sciences, health sciences and the arts and sciences. The undergraduate program admits women only, but most of the graduate schools also admit men.

Robert oversees the administrative and technology aspects of the school's IT – from its underlying servers and network, the help desk, audiovisual support in the classroom, campus use of the Web, and academic technology such as the learning management system, training and the administrative support system.

THE CHALLENGE

Simmons College had been using student response systems, but those who used it were not satisfied. When Robert attended the North East Regional Computing Program (NERCOMP) conference sponsored by Educause, he met and talked with representatives of Turning Technologies. After researching how others were using the response technology, Simmons purchased a trial TurningPoint bundled kit.

The Simmons nursing program was the first to use the new 120 ResponseCards® in a large undergraduate nursing class. Subsequently, the school found other innovative uses for this audience response technology – in special events, particularly strategic planning meetings. At one critical point, the ResponseCards helped the College through the process of articulating a shared vision for academic technology.

THE SOLUTION

Because Simmons had an overarching vision for the long-term potentials of Turning Technologies ResponseCards, they began installing TurningPoint software on systems in classrooms across campus so ResponseCards could be used in any class at any time. Robert's Media Services team devised a system where the IT department would loan the centrally owned systems to faculty for several weeks. This would allow faculty members the opportunity to try out TurningPoint before they made a commitment to use the system long term. One of the consequences of the shared vision for academic technology that was developed with the aid of TurningPoint was that students would be expected to purchase their own ResponseCards.

As for the effect of TurningPoint in the classroom from a faculty and student point of view, they are "delighted with how easy the system is to learn and to use," says Robert. Together, the software and ResponseCards help faculty instantly determine whether students understand material, as well as provide instant feedback on student reactions to the tasks they are performing.

CONCLUSION

Robert says, "TurningPoint is especially effective in large classes. It increases the interaction and the overall dynamism while allowing individual students to remain anonymous."

He continues, "It is also a great way to 'take the temperature' of the room. When working on strategic goals, TurningPoint helped groups get to resolutions faster, and understand how people were thinking. If there were misunderstandings, TurningPoint revealed them, which helped the group resolve discrepancies."

As the purchasing decision maker, Robert concludes that Simmons College has definitely received its money's worth, and will continue to do so as TurningPoint continues to be used in classrooms across campus. He says, "In a non-profit organization, the return on investment translates into an academic return. TurningPoint improves learning. And there are substantive and positive changes to the learning environment. We plan to engage in studies where we can actually quantify the benefits."

For more information about purchasing Turning Technologies' audience response systems for your organization, contact us at 866-746-3015.