Enhancing Student Participation with Student Response Systems

Abstract

This grant was intended to serve as seed funding for a progressive study into the effective use of student response systems (SRS).1 (SRS are systems that make use of radio frequency technology (in the most common manifestation) to allow students to participate in a non-threatening manner in a seminar discussion. SRS typically have four components: i) hand held radio frequency devices which allow students to participate in a large group discussion in a non-verbal fashion, ii) a computer and projector which allows the course facilitator to introduce topics for participatory involvement, iii) a radio frequency receiver which collects student responses and iv) a software program that tabulates student responses and embeds the responses into presentation software (such as PowerPoint).)