Assessment of Instructional Technology - Purdue College of ...

Final Report of the Task Force to Assess Instructional/Educational Technology
EInstruction
Appendix III: Summary of survey details relevant to EInstruction and Respondus
Faculty Survey:
Clickers offer a way for students to respond anonymously to questions in class and have the
results displayed instantaneously. The majority of the faculty (63%) were familiar with the use of
clickers in the classroom. Of those who had no prior knowledge of them, 45% thought they
would be useful and 55% did not. Of the faculty who already knew about clickers, 13% had
actually used them in the classroom and 87% had not. Of those who had prior knowledge of
them and had used them, 75% thought they were useful for instructional activities and 25% did
not. Of those who had prior knowledge of them but had never used them, 73% thought they
would be useful and 27% did not. The "bottom line" seems to be that three-quarters of the
faculty members who already knew about clickers thought they would be useful, but 55% of the
faculty members who had no prior knowledge of them thought they would be of no value after
reading a short description of them.
Student Survey:
The opinions of the students about clickers were more negative than those of the faculty. The
majority of the students (70%) were familiar with the use of clickers in the classroom. Of the
students who were already familiar with them but had not used them in class, 39% thought they
would facilitate learning and 61% thought they would not. Of the students who were already
familiar with them and had actually used them in class, 23% thought they facilitated learning and
77% thought they did not. So the trend seems to be that as more students actually use clickers,
fewer of them think they actually have value. This is in line with the fact that of the students who
had no prior knowledge of clickers and had never used them, 60% thought they would facilitate
learning after reading a short description of them.
EInstruction: Necessary Investments
The main expense involved with use of clickers is that each student must purchase one for $20.
There is no expense to the instructor. We currently have the technology to implement clickers
and the decision to use or not to use them is up to the instructor(s) involved in teaching the
class. No future investment is necessary except for the students.
Respondus
Faculty Survey:
Respondus is a tool for writing examinations offline in Windows without viewing the underlying
HTML, and then uploading them directly in Blackboard. Only 10% of the faculty were familiar
with Respondus. Of those, 60% had actually used Respondus and all of them thought it was
useful. Of the faculty who were familiar with Respondus but had not actually used it, 60%
thought it would be useful and 40% did not. Of the faculty members who had no prior knowledge
of Respondus (90%), 43% thought it would be useful after reading a short description of it, and
57% thought it would not be useful. The "bottom line" with Respondus is that it is necessary if
examinations cannot be given in the classroom, but it is far from ideal because exam security
cannot be guaranteed. No further investment is required for use of this tool.
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