Selection Process - Clicker Standardization

Classroom Response Systems (Clickers) are all the rage these days. All the big universities are clicking. But, why? What's it all about?

Clickers are wireless keypad devices, similar to your television remote control, that can be used by students in a classroom to promote student/faculty interaction, give the instructor an immediate means of evaluating student understanding, and hold students' interest during lecture periods. In a classroom setting, students use these devices often to respond to multiple choice, yes/no questions that are delivered intermittently, simply by clicking on the corresponding keypad selection that represents their answer. The results of these polls can be instantly displayed on a screen and saved by the instructor for future reference.

In early Spring '07, upon discovering that many professors on USD's campus were using various clicker technologies (also known as Classroom Response Systems, Student Response Systems, Audience Response Systems), we began to see that there was a need to standardize with one product. Our goal with standardization was to ensure that students not be required to purchase multiple products, and to enable ITS to be able to support a product campus wide.

Faculty across campus who were current users of clicker technology were invited to participate as committee members as we began the selection process.  18 committee members consisting of faculty, ITS personnel, bookstore representatives and students, met for the first time on April 12, 2007.

It was determined at this first meeting that the following products were being used on campus: Turning Technologies, CPS, InterWrite and iClicker.  Criteria for evaluating these products were discussed and a matrix was developed to capture these criteria as the committee began to investigate products, see demonstrations, and consult other universities who had adopted these products.  All consideration had to be given to best overall options and key criteria and features in entering into this selection process.

Product representatives were invited to demo their products at different campus events such as the Faculty Technology Showcase and the Faculty Open House.  They were also invited to future committee meetings (a total of 5 were held over a period of 3 months) and the committee began to narrow down the field from the original 4 products to 2 or 3.  Faculty members also demonstrated their use of these technologies and presented their views of the product pros and cons.  A lot of questions were raised.

It was the final decision that was most difficult as 3 out of 4 of these products would not be selected and many faculty would be asked to change and adapt to the standardized unit.  Faculty convincing faculty best describes the process that ensued. Which product makes the most sense for our campus based on the established criteria? And thus began the process of elimination as an in depth investigation of each of these products continued. 

On June 18, 2007 the committee met for the last time and took a preliminary vote, which was evenly divided.  By this time it has been determined what types of sandwiches are best to order for the lunchtime get-together's, but a clicker has not yet been decided upon.  One of the members present took it upon himself to take these products and do a real comparative trial with them, detailing his findings and providing a very comprehensive study for the others to examine.  It was this study and the vendor’s final responses to questions posed that swayed the votes in the end.

Our intention initially was to standardize in Spring ’08, however, when the committee reached a decision, we realized that many faculty on campus were planning to use clickers for Fall ’07 semester and felt that it was necessary to push forward faster. We were able to make the standardization announcement the first week of August in an attempt to prevent a varied use of products on campus, additional costs to students, and future confusion.