Significant returns in engagement and performance with a free teaching app

Abstract

Pedagogical research shows that teaching methods other than traditional lectures may result in better outcomes. However, lecture remains the dominant method in economics, likely due to high implementation costs of methods shown to be effective in the literature. In this article, the author shows significant benefits of using a teaching app for clicker questions and exit tickets (a digital one-minute paper) in lectures with minimal time commitment and outside preparation. The use of the teaching app improved exam performance by over 8 percent, on average, compared to a control section of traditional lecture and discussion in principles classes.

Keywords:

• Active learning
• clickers
• student performance
• teaching apps

JEL codes:

• A12
• A22

Acknowledgement

This article benefitted from discussion and comments at the 2014 AEA CTREE in Washington, DC, and from Bill Goffe.

Notes

1. The Socrative app does have a limit of 50 simultaneous users in a room. I found that its capacity could be stretched to 60 without major problems. For larger classes, other free possibilities are available, such as www.polleverywhere.com.