Musings on Socrative after year one
As you can tell it's been nearly ten months since my last blog post, and so much has happened in that time. In this post I want to focus on Socrative, the free student response system I started using this past fall and have continued to use through the end of this, spring, semester. One of the questions I had starting out was what percentage of students has access to a device, which is anything that has internet access including smartphones. Results of the survey showed 81% of first year biology students had access. This was enough to allow full class coverage with the addition of a few laptops and iPods that the discipline has access to. The biggest challenge the first semester was students using up their data plans on their smartphones; this problem was solved spring semester with the installation of campus wide wireless (thanks IT!). Another professor began using Socrative in the spring semester and found ALL of her students had a device. Based on this, I think Socrative is a good solution for student response as it is cheap (free!) and most students have a device.
My second question was would it enhance learning? One of my biggest pet peeves in education currently is the push for technology for technology's sake. I find myself repeating, "technology in support of education, not for the sake of more technology". The main way Socrative has improved education in my biology courses is via feedback from students that can occur at any time during class, whether that be a structured end of class "exit ticket" or a spur of the moment "they look confused, let's see what they understand and what they don't" question. The "exit ticket" occurs at the end of class, usually the last 3-5 minutes. I ask for the student's name, how well the student understood the material, and a question they have from that day's material or a concept they did not understand. This has been VERY helpful! If I get several of the same question I either (a) cover it briefly at the beginning of the next class or (b) utilize Educreations to record a white board mini-lecture that can be posted on Blackboard. Several students have commented favorably on the latter. Some questions I will email the student a quick answer or if it is a really interesting question that I think will review the material nicely and/or provoke thought from the group, I ask the class the question at the beginning of the next class period. The other part I like is instant feedback on how well students understand material as we are covering it. During the class period I don't ask for names so results are anonymous, and I allow students to discuss with each other before entering an answer. Results are reported as a bar graph so it's easy for me to glance at my iPad and see where we are. If the majority of the class (>90%) gets the answer, we can move on, if not discussion and perhaps more analogy is necessary. I also use these for "clicker cases" which are case studies that have embedded questions. The idea is the same but slightly more formal as the questions are integrated into the case powerpoint. I have also experimented with putting in more formal questions into my own powerpoint lectures and case studies. This works very well, but it's nice to have the flexibility to write a quick question on the board and get feedback . Another cool feature is Socrative allows short answers from students. Following that, one can allow students to vote on the best answer.
Overall I will continue to use Socrative in the above ways but am open to other ideas. It might be a good way to assess group work as well, of which I would like to incorporate more. But that's a topic for another post. Signing off for today but hope to be back to writing more as classes end in a week.
My second question was would it enhance learning? One of my biggest pet peeves in education currently is the push for technology for technology's sake. I find myself repeating, "technology in support of education, not for the sake of more technology". The main way Socrative has improved education in my biology courses is via feedback from students that can occur at any time during class, whether that be a structured end of class "exit ticket" or a spur of the moment "they look confused, let's see what they understand and what they don't" question. The "exit ticket" occurs at the end of class, usually the last 3-5 minutes. I ask for the student's name, how well the student understood the material, and a question they have from that day's material or a concept they did not understand. This has been VERY helpful! If I get several of the same question I either (a) cover it briefly at the beginning of the next class or (b) utilize Educreations to record a white board mini-lecture that can be posted on Blackboard. Several students have commented favorably on the latter. Some questions I will email the student a quick answer or if it is a really interesting question that I think will review the material nicely and/or provoke thought from the group, I ask the class the question at the beginning of the next class period. The other part I like is instant feedback on how well students understand material as we are covering it. During the class period I don't ask for names so results are anonymous, and I allow students to discuss with each other before entering an answer. Results are reported as a bar graph so it's easy for me to glance at my iPad and see where we are. If the majority of the class (>90%) gets the answer, we can move on, if not discussion and perhaps more analogy is necessary. I also use these for "clicker cases" which are case studies that have embedded questions. The idea is the same but slightly more formal as the questions are integrated into the case powerpoint. I have also experimented with putting in more formal questions into my own powerpoint lectures and case studies. This works very well, but it's nice to have the flexibility to write a quick question on the board and get feedback . Another cool feature is Socrative allows short answers from students. Following that, one can allow students to vote on the best answer.
Overall I will continue to use Socrative in the above ways but am open to other ideas. It might be a good way to assess group work as well, of which I would like to incorporate more. But that's a topic for another post. Signing off for today but hope to be back to writing more as classes end in a week.
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