SAS Computing now offers Audience Response Systems, which we call “Clickers”, for use in classes.

Students use small handsets (pictured to the left) to vote on multiple-choice surveys or quizzes that are projected on the screen by the classroom computer or the instructor's laptop. Software on the computer collects the responses and displays a histogram of the results when voting has finished. The instructor can choose to indicate which was the correct answer, or can withhold this information to promote discussion. All of this is easily set up by the instructor using free software from TurningPoint.

Students find the use of clickers engaging, and instructors like to be able to see if students are following the lecture. The voting can be anonymous, or instructors can ask students to register their clickers in Canvas, so that the instructor can track each student's responses to questions.

Clickers can purchased by students at the Bookstore, right next to the textbook, and can be sold back to the Bookstore at the end of the term, much like a used textbook. SAS Computing will loan the instructor a small USB receiver to use for the semester.

In the photograph to the right, Anu Vedantham, Director of the Weigle Information Commons, teaches a hands-on workshop on Clickers with PowerPoint in the Commons.

Edna Ross says, “With clickers, you're giving every student a voice, even the introverts” ("Using Classroom Clickers To Engage Every Student", Campus Technology).