Using clickers to engage pharmacy students across multiple campuses

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When you teach at a University with multiple campuses (in our case, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach in Florida and Ponce in Puerto Rico) even with live, interactive videoconferencing – you have to try and figure out ways to connect with your students at different sites. We’ve tried different methods over the years with varying success, but one that worked well early on was the use of  an audience response system (aka clickers). This is something I talked about previously in the presentation, “The Science Behind Engaging Students in Class“.

Our recent article in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education basically describes our multi-campus implementation and measurement of its impact on student engagement, satisfaction, and opinions about projected use of clickers in other courses. We also touched on related issues, such as clickers’ possible role in helping desensitize communication apprehension in students.

@kevinclauson

Clauson KA, Alkhateeb FM, Singh-Franco D. Concurrent use of an audience response system at a multi-campus college of pharmacy. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. 76(1):6.

The Science Behind Engaging Students in Class

I have been experimenting with one of my previous lectures, How To Fight Lecturalgia, in terms of incorporating the feedback, questions, and discussions that have followed after presenting it at several universities.  This new presentation is titled, The Science Behind Engaging Students in Class.  My primary aim was to make the scientific or evidence-based approach I used more readily apparent.  I specifically wanted  to enhance its literature-driven  model to give some depth as to the ‘why’  of the recommendations to augment the ‘what’.  So this presentation represents the attempt to provide theoretical and research underpinnings for use of an audience response system as well as visual design and cognitive load elements used to engage students.

@kevinclauson