CONTINUOUS USE OF STUDENT RESPONSE SYSTEMS IN UNIVERSITY CLASSES: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF STUDENT RESPONSE RATES

Abstract

Student Response Systems (SRS) allow all students to participate in the classroom using their own devices. While it is an effective tool for promoting active participation and classroom interaction, previous studies argue that overuse of the technology can pose a problem of student disengagement. This paper reports on a quantitative study of the relationship between the number of SRS questions disseminated and the number of students’ responses, drawing on data from a locally-developed SRS that was used campus-wide between 2012 and 2015 at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Although the number of questions per session varied among different disciplines, likely due to the differences in learning objectives, our results show that student responses were generally stable with virtually no significant drop at the end of the lessons regardless of the number of questions asked. However, other factors may have affected the number of student responses. Our results suggest that continuous use of the technology does not lower student participation, but the design of learning activities may influence the effectiveness of SRS.