Skip to Main Content

Teaching with Technology: Feedback Tools

Clickers

What: Clickers are devices used for polling students in a face-to-face classroom setting.
When: Use when you want to get instant feedback about certain topics, make the classroom more interactive or when students need to provide peer-to-peer feedback and hold group discussions on the feedback.
Why: Clickers can make the classroom more engaging and interactive. They can also provide answers for sensitive topics where anonymity is preferred.

Additional Resources: - Educause Research Study (2007): Clickers in the Classroom: An Active Learning Approach by Margie Martyn - InsideHigherEd: Inteview of Derek Bruff on book about clickers; provides info on usage in classroom and book title

Clickers allows students to participate in lectures or presentations by submitting real-time respones to question.  If faculty are interested in learning more about Clickers, check out the following links to TurningPoint Clickers.

Online Tutorials

Best Practices using TurningPoint Clickers

Survey Monkey

What: Survey Monkey is a free, online survey creation tool.
Where: https://www.surveymonkey.com/
When: Course evaluations, student feedback and testing. For a minimal fee, users can use more advanced features survey analysis and download results into PDF or Excel formats.
Why: For evaluation involving more than yes/no feedback, this tool allows for a simple web interface that can be emailed to students via Blackboard. Responses can be quickly and easily obtained.

Additional Resources: - SurveyMonkey: Take A Tour and learn more about question creation, templates, and more - How to analyze survey data

Poll Everywhere

What: Poll Everywhere is a real-time survey tool that accepts responses through mobile phones, laptops, and other web-enabled devices. Results can be instantly displayed within a PowerPoint presentation or through a web browser. Services are free for audiences of 40 or less.
Where: https://www.polleverywhere.com/
When: Use Poll Everywhere during instruction sessions to gather instant feedback and engage students. 
Why: Poll Everywhere displays instant results, allowing you to assess the effectiveness of your session in real-time. If you can uncover gaps while class is in session you have the opportunity to correct the problems before moving on. Post-class assessments may help in planning future sessions but are of little value to the immediate class.
In addition to the benefits of real-time instant assessment, Poll Everywhere encourages students to respond honestly and freely. Besides the fun of watching real-time results display instantly, Poll Everywhere brings a bit of fun to the classroom. Since most classes have a "no-cell-phone" policy, students will be immediately engaged by the novelty of actually being asked to text in a class!

Additional Resources: - PollEverywhere FAQ's and Help Documentation - Take A Tour and learn more