Use of iQlickers to enhance the In-class Student Learning

Leo Yu
Ronnie Shroff
King Chong
Stephen Cheung

Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

 

Abstract: 

As enlightened by Constructivism – that knowledge is ‘constructed’ through learners’ active participation – active in-class interactions represent the focal point in Outcomes-based Teaching and Learning (OBTL) in general, and its Constructive Alignment in particular. However, the situations commonly confronted with our university educators are the low in-class responses from students, large classes that further exacerbate students’ passive learning, and heavy teaching workloads that may dilute the instructors’ interactions with students. Envisaging these issues, Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has pioneered in developing a Personal Response System – iQlickers. With this System, students can efficiently make their personal responses anonymously via their mobile phones, and then iQlickers will carry out a real time analysis and display the quantitative and qualitative data of their answers. All this stimulates discussions and interactions between students and teachers.

This presentation aims to share some practical experiences of how iQlickers can enhance the in-class learning of students and better the implementation of OBTL. It commences by briefly describing the context and process of using iQlickers, followed by a demonstration of the use of it in a language course. Finally, some empirical data will be presented to illustrate how iQlickers can advance the student learning experience. In general, quantitative data show that students have perceived a higher degree in the alignment between learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessment exercises, while the interviews with students reveal that iQlickers is able to make them more attentive, proactive and participative in class, and that the interactions between students and teachers are enhanced as well.

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