Clickers @ UCSC

Faculty: Getting Started

1. Order clickers the same way you order books: Bay Tree Bookstore Course Materials Manager Christine Harper (charper@ucsc.edu or 459-1333)

2. Check out the Base Unit: Media Services Front Desk (media@ucsc.edu or 459-2117) starting Winter Quarter 2009

3. Look at some online training materials:
www.iclicker.com or 866-209-5698
FAQs (student and instructor)

4. Talk to fellow faculty who have volunteered to assist you:

Rebecca Bernstein, Astronomy & Astrophysics
Puragra (Raja) GuhaThakurta, Astronomy & Astrophysics
Fred Kuttner, Physics
Susan Schwartz, Earth & Planetary Sciences
Susan Strome, MCD Biology

5. Learn how to integrate clickers with WebCT:: Faculty Instructional Technology Center (fitc@ucsc.edu or 459-5506)

Students: Getting Started

1. Buy your clicker the same way you buy books at the Bay Tree Bookstore.

2. Look at some online training materials:
www.iclicker.com or 866-209-5698
FAQs (student and instructor)

Reasons to use clickers:

Promote active learning
Ensure that students understand fundamental concepts
Promote participatory, team-based collaboration
Use student response data to adjust your instructional approach as needed
Quickly gauge student opinions on sensitive issues

Benefits of standardizing:

Students only have to buy one clicker for all their classes
Volume purchasing brings down per unit costs
Wider support base among faculty

Benefits of i>Clicker:

User-friendly interface
Good vendor support
Textbook publishers can package i>Clicker with their textbooks

i>Clicker is our new standard

Clickers

A group of faculty met in the fall of 2008 to recommend a single standard for clickers at UCSC. i>Clicker was selected as the suggested standard. Used predominantly in large section courses to improve student participation and promote active learning, use of clickers has been on the rise over the past few years.

i>Clickers are available for students to purchase at the Bay Tree Bookstore. Instructors need a USB receiver to plug into their in-class computer or laptop. Instructors can add their clicker order to their regular coursebook adoption request each quarter.

You're Not Alone

Faculty from many different disciplines use clicker technology in their classrooms. It is easy to get started, and a group of faculty is already forming to help you integrate this teaching tool into your class.

Find Out More

Please visit our history page for more information about how the i>Clicker was chosen at UCSC, our experiences using other clickers, and how clickers are being used at other universities. Here's a printer-friendly version of this information.

The recommendation of a standard in no way obligates faculty to use i>Clicker.

Feedback from UCSC Students, Faculty, and Staff

On 01/08/09 Erika Layman said:

These are expensive and will produce a lot of e-waste. They eliminate the humanity inherent to a good education and they make me feel like a robot. Soon professor, classrooms, and interaction will be irrelevant.

On 01/05/09 Melissa Jurica said:

Would it be possible to create a webpage here similar to this one: http://www.vpit.ualberta.ca/iclicker/student-faqs.php

It has a nice FAQ for students regarding iClickers.

We replied:

I looked at the page you suggested and noticed that it is almost identical to the FAQ provided at the i>Clicker site itself, except for cases where it contains information (like posters in the front of the classroom) that is specific only to their campus. In order to avoid campus-specific information, and in order to make sure our information stays up-to-date, we'll post links to the i>Clicker FAQs; one for students and the other for instructors.

Thanks for helping us make this page a useful resource!

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Feedback Form

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