Clicker Student Response Systems: Dedicated Physical Devices or Web-Enabled Systems that Allow Student to Bring Their Own Device (BYOD).

Clickers (also known as audience-response system, classroom-response system, or student-response system) have become a mainstay in higher education as a well-established active-learning technique. This student-centered pedagogical technique readily engages students with course content, provides interactive classrooms and improves learning (1–5). Additional benefits include real-time information, anonymity, and clear graphical representation of responses (1–2). Over time, clicker-devices have evolved from dedicated hand-held devices to web-based applications. This review explores some advantages and disadvantages of these two-main options.

Dedicated-response device

Dedicated clickers are hand-held devices that typically utilize infrared signals to transmit two-way information to a receiver (2). These clickers will have a power button, a menu or login button and several buttons for answer choices (e.g. A/1, B/2, C/3, D/4, E/5, F/6, G/7, H/8, I/9 and J/0). Due to the limited design and structure of these devices, they can only be used as an in-classroom response device. In higher education, these devices are predominantly acquired from either Turning Point Technologies (www.turningtechnologies.com) or iClicker (www.iclicker.com).

An advantage of dedicated devices is that students remain focused on in-classroom instruction during an in-classroom activity utilizing these devices, without Internet access for distraction. A disadvantage is cost, which can vary widely depending on whether the purchase is for a single device, a single access license, or for institutional implementation (Table 1). These costs may fall on the student, faculty, department, and/or institution. An additional responsibility is remembering to bring the device(s) to class, which falls to either the student or instructor. Students may forget their devices, while faculty may be limited by their ability to reserve or sign-out a class-set of devices. In the latter scenario, students must retrieve and return their devices during class-time, which can use up teaching time and disrupt the flow of instruction.

TABLE 1

Price comparison of common student response-systems.

System	Device Options		Pricing*
	Physical Device	Web Device
Turning Point	•	•	• $16.99/student for physical device
www.turningtechnologies.com			• $20.99 license/student for web-based system
iClicker	•	•	•~$40–46/student for physical device
www.iclicker.com			• $23.99/year/student for web-based system
Poll Everywhere		•	•Free: up to 25 respondents
www.polleverywhere.com			• Starting at $228/year for 26–50 respondents
Socrative		•	• Free: up to 50 respondents
www.socrative.com			• Starting at $59.99/year for up to 150 respondents
TopHat		•	•$80.97/year/student
www.tophat.com

Data collected from company websites in fall 2017; rates at individual institutions may vary.

Internet-based clickers

Internet-based clicker applications are available on a variety of web-connected platforms that use common operating systems (i.e., Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple) (Table 1). These web-based applications can be accessed via a laptop, tablet, or smart-phone, but students are required to possess and bring their own device (BYOD). These systems require access to the institution’s wireless Internet connection, a browser or a downloaded application, a faculty account, and in some cases a student account. As with the dedicated clickers, price structures can vary and costs can fall upon either the student, faculty, department and/or institution (Table 1). In smaller classrooms (<50 students) faculty can easily try these web-based systems for free.

A clear advantage of web-based systems is the ease of set-up and implementation, as long as faculty are comfortable with technology. The assumption that all students can afford their own personal device should be assessed. Faculty should be mindful of this assumption and burden on students. As a work-around, some institutions may provide devices for students to borrow for the semester. Alternatively, participation in clicker activities may be encouraged, but not required. In other words, students should not lose grade-points for simply not having their own personal device. Regardless of whether or not a student actually has a personal device with which to enter or click their response, all students still benefit from the interactive review of content. Another potential disadvantage is that students may become distracted with social media or other websites. Additionally, the application may be limited by personal device storage, data, and/or battery-life (4).

When faculty decide to incorporate a clicker response-system, they should be able to do so seamlessly with any of these options. The choice of system depends on numerous factors: whether or not the institution has an available clicker set; class size; students’ ability to bring their own device; intended purpose of questions (i.e., review of content and/or an attendance check); faculty comfort with technology; and preference. In conclusion, response systems are an excellent way to engage students and foster a more interactive teaching environment. Faculty have multiple options to implement these systems.