Using the Personal Response Systems to Enhance Student Learning: Some Evidence from Teaching Economics

Abstract

Recent increases in class size in higher education have focused more attention on the nature of the face-to-face learning experience. This chapter examines how a keypad technology facilitates active learning in the lecture hall using a number of pedagogically proven approaches. We survey 219 first-year business studies students tackling introductory economics, and find that the technology enhances learning in lectures because, among other things, it improves concentration, provides instantaneous and more effective student feedback, and allows students to make comparisons on how well they fare relative to their peers. Interestingly, we find less statistical support for the benefits of using the technology to allow students to respond anonymously, and explore some reasons for this result. Finally, we demonstrate our use of the tool to engage in teaching the Prisoner’s Dilemma game. This forms part of the emerging knowledge on how to teach classroom experiments using keypad technology.