Personal Response System (“Clickers”) Seminar for Instructors – Nov 25

For those of you who are curious about or considering using PRS in your classes, the Center for Teaching, OIT Academic Computing, and the Provost’s Office are co-hosting an event on November 25 for instructors who want to learn more. Details below.

PRS, or Personal Response System, is a tool that many professors at UMass use to improve the quality of instruction and student interaction in their classes, especially in large lectures. You ask the questions and PRS handles the data collection and presentation of the results. Such nearly instant feedback is useful for student learning and to stimulate discussion.

If you’re interested in using PRS in your class, it may be worth your time to learn more about the system, what to expect, as well as some guidelines for getting started before you commit to this tool (once all your students have bought clickers it’s not really fair to change your mind). The Center for Teaching, OIT Academic Computing, and the Provost’s Office invite you to join us for this PRS seminar for instructors who are considering using PRS for the first time. To sign up, please email: cfteach@acad.umass.edu or call 545-1225 by *Nov. 21*.

Date: Tuesday, November 25
Time: 12:30 ~ 2:00 pm
Location: Campus Center #101
Presenter: Robin Green (eInstruction), Zane Barlow (Biology)

Here are a few items we will be discussing at the seminar:

a. Best ways to present PRS to the class
i. Syllabus
ii. Presentation the first day of class

b. PRS for points?
i. How and for what are points given?
ii. What is the optimal incentive scheme to facilitate learning?

c. Best ways to troubleshoot problems
i. Forgot PRS, low battery, technical glitch
ii. Students with learning disability and PRS

d. Best ways to integrate PRS in class
i. Powerpoint? Overhead slide?
ii. Best ways to run PRS (the different ways to run PRS)

e. Integrating PRS with other technology
i. Tablet PC, School Pad, etc.

f. Managing PRS grade book with
i. Interwrite Gradebook
ii. Excel
iii. SPARK, OWL

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to toolbar