Using an Audience Response System to Enhance Student Engagement in Large Group Orientation: A Law Faculty Case Study

Abstract

This chapter discusses an innovative use of an audience response system (ARS) to address the vexed learning and teaching problem of how to manage effective student engagement in large group academic Orientation sessions. Having particular regard to the research that informs transition practice to enhance the first-year experience, the chapter addresses the pedagogical basis for the decision to adopt the ARS technology as integral to the learning design deployed. The Orientation exemplar discussed is drawn from practice in a law faculty; however, the general approach illustrated is capable of replication regardless of discipline or institution. In the hope that this case study might be transferred to other applications, the enactment of the learning design involving the ARS is described, and an analysis of the evaluation conducted is also presented.