Teaching in the 21st century – Engaging students in active learning using student response systems

Abstract

The prevalence of student response systems (hereafter SRS) in higher education has grown significantly in the last few years. Student classroom participation and student’s assessment of performance particularly in larger classes, has often been regarded as problematic in pedagogical research (Black and Wiliam, 1998; Fies and Marshall, 2006). Growth in technology, coupled with popularity of handheld devices has led to the development in SRS with the intention of increasing classroom participation and engaging students in the lecture setting (Denker, 2013). Studies identify benefits to students participating in the classroom using SRS including increased student involvement, attendance, learning and engagement (Heaslip et al., 2014; Van Daele et al., 2017). This research seeks to examine the effects of a SRS on student participation and engagement in large undergraduate economics modules at both an Irish and UK university during the academic year of 2018/19. We compare a control period (no SRS in place) with a trial period (SRS in place). The results show that the use of the SRS significantly increased student’s interaction with the lecturer and their ability to perform self-assessment in absolute terms and relative to their peers.