Clicking for grades? Really? Investigating the use of clickers for awarding grade-points in post-secondary education

Abstract

Using classroom response systems (clickers) to accumulate grade-points has become a controversial practice as response systems have become more widely used in the last decade. Although some instructors opt to use clickers on a non-grades basis, it has become quite common to reward students for (a) correct answers, (b) participating in clicker questions regardless of whether their answer is correct or incorrect, and (c) a combination of participation and correctness. Here, we discuss the appropriateness of using clickers for accumulating grade-points in academia and address two of the most common concerns raised with such practices: technology failure and cheating. The paucity of literature on clicker technology failure suggests that it is more sensationalized than real. Cheating remains a real issue, but can be minimized by educating students about clicker-related cheating policies and by staying away from high-stakes clicker-based testing. Research and expert opinion leads us to believe that the appropriateness of using clickers for accumulating grades depends on how they are used. We recommend rewarding students for giving correct answers or for participating in high-value constructivist learning activities. Rewarding students with participation grade-points for incorrect answers to trivia-style or simple-factual questions should be avoided because it primarily serves to reward students for their attendance in class.

Keywords:

• classroom response systems
• student response systems
• clickers
• academic integrity

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Tomlinson Project in University-Level Science Education (T-PULSE) for funding this project. They are indebted to Richard H. Tomlinson for his generous support. Thanks also to David Delaney and Oscar Avila Akerberg for valuable discussions and for their work on the implementation study.