Why is plickers a relevant pedagogy alternative for accounting educators? A reflection on distinct types of student response systems (SRS)

Abstract

Plickers is a type of student response system (SRS) and is a relatively new educational technology tool that can assist the teaching and learning processes through an engaging quiz-based activity. Despite that, little research has been conducting on it thus far. I was unable to retrieve any published work in accounting academic journals on Plickers. Then, this study aims to show why Plickers is an important pedagogy alternative for accounting educators, comparatively to other types of SRS. To this end, I have discussed Plickers’ features and functionality. Subsequently, I compared Plickers and other kinds of SRS regarding essential issues in its usage. Next, I described preliminary findings on Plickers and, finally, I presented my final thoughts based on what I have shown throughout the paper. I argue that Plickers has essential advantages over other types of SRSs that may relevantly influence educational institutions’ and faculty’s decision to adopt it, and these include (i) less dependency on technology and technical support, (ii) lower costs, and (iii) the potential learning benefits are similar to previous versions of SRS, particularly concerning students’ involvement, participation, and performance. Additionally, Plickers is flexible in terms of utilizing it at distinct levels of education and courses, especially in face to-face education. I discuss the implications for practice and provide suggestions for future studies in the final section of the paper. Keywords : Plickers, Student response system, Educational technology, Accounting education. https://doi.org/10.21714/2446-9114RMC2019v20net03