This project was a part-time project which was run over 3 years (July 2005-July 2008). The PRS is a system which allows students to vote during lectures and other classes. Lecturers can pose a question, each student has a 'clicker' (a tool which looks similar to a remote control - with buttons on it). They can use this 'clicker' to vote on what they think the answer to a question is. The lecturer sets a time limit on receiving votes. Once this time limit is up, no more votes are accepted. A graph is then displayed showing a summary of the votes. The lecturer gets instant feedback on whether or not the students are following the lecture and can adapt their lecture or provide reference material if a point needs to be re-explained. The clickers are issued by the University's libraries. Students can borrow them free of charge using their student cards. The course organisers will notify students beforehand if clickers are to be used in their courses so that students can go to loan clickers from the libraries in advance. The desktop computers in all the lecture theatres in the School of Biological Sciences have been equipped with PRS receivers, so any lecturer can run PRS answering/voting sessions in their lectures. Clickers are now used in a number of first-, second- and third-year courses. We have run focus groups with students to gauge opinion, and developed some guidelines for using clickers in lectures. This article was published on 2024-06-17
