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TopReview Of Didactical Aspects Of Audience Response Systems (Ars)
ARS are famous for their applications in quiz shows. In this setting they are used to receive real-time audience feedback. Didactical applications of ARS in an educational environment were introduced by Harden, Wayne & Donald (1968) and Dunn (1969) in 1968. Technically, they used machine readable paper based cards (see also Elliot, 2003).
Draper, Cargill, & Cutts (2002) define the following didactical reasons for using ARS:
- 1.
Formative feedback on learning within a class (i.e. within a contact period)
- 2.
Formative feedback to the teacher on the teaching (i.e. “course feedback”)
- 3.
Peer assessment which can be done on the spot
- 4.
Community mutual awareness building
- 5.
Experiments using human responses
- 6.
Initiation of discussions using the equipment
Edens (2006) finds that the use of ARS in the classroom enhances student (intrinsic) motivation. It is generally well known that motivation plays an important role in the learning process and has been intensively investigated (Caldwell, 2007; Deci, Ryan, & Williams, 1996; Perry, Vandekamp, Mercer, & Nordby, 2002; Pintrich, 2003).
Kay & LeSage (2009) conducted a comprehensive review of the literature about teaching strategies with ARS. In the 52 investigated articles, they identified four major strategies: general, motivational, assessment and learning based strategies (Table 1).