About ITC
Newsletter: Summer 2006
To Engage Students, Begin Clicking!
Did you know that several UT Knoxville faculty have been using a relatively new technology in teaching and learning that helps increase student engagement and active participation in class?
It’s called “clicker” technology, and it’s been quite successful on many college campuses in engaging students and enhancing their learning experience. Clickers are portable, hand-held devices that allow students to send their responses to multiple-
choice, true-false, and quantitative questions wirelessly, via infrared or radio frequency (RF) technology, to a receiver connected to the instructor’s laptop computer.
Several UT Knoxville faculty have been using the clickers since Fall 2005. ITC recorded their intial experiences in the Clicker Pilot Report, which can be downloaded by visiting http://itc.utk.edu/technology/clickers.shtml and clicking “Download Clicker Pilot Report.” Any faculty interested in using clicker technology can contact Kathy Herr at eInstruction by e-mailing or by calling (888) 707-6819 to request a course site. Visit ITC's quickstart guide for assistance in creating your course and getting started with clicker technology.
Once you’ve obtained a course site, the ITC will provide on-campus faculty training and support via a workshop on clicker use, question structuring, and interactive strategies. We also provide one-on-one faculty assistance as requested and a Web site for reference, communication, and group support.
In addition, if your department would like a workshop on the use and benefits of departmental clicker adoption, contact Dr. Christina Goode at (865) 974-6470, cgoode@utk.edu, or Dr. Michael Burke at (865) 974-8893, mburke@utk.edu.