Student interactive response system or: Having fun in the classroom

Submitted by:  Brad Denison

Many instructors were introduced to Qwizdom during the fall 2011 convocation at College of the Mainland.  It’s nearly November and one brave soul has set out to put this amazing technology to work in her classes - Assistant Professor of Psychology, Lalanya Ennis.  I watched Ennis use Qwizdom in her Psychology for Success class and it seems that in less than a week she became quite comfortable with it. 

I had a chance to ask Lalanya a few questions about Qwizdom:

(From left to right) Samuel P., Chelsea C. and Allen T.

What made you want to use the Qwizdom remotes?

I attended the Qwizdom training during convocation and that really sparked an interest for me because I enjoy learning new strategies to engage students in the learning process.  I could see a lot of possibilities in the classroom, but was hesitant to actually try it.  At first, I thought using Qwizdom was going to be too complicated to use for myself and for my students, so I procrastinated on using the system.  I was challenged by my department chair to use the Qwizdom in my classroom, which gave me the incentive I needed to quit procrastinating and just try it out. 

What has been the most difficult part of Qwizdom for you?

To be honest, there was no difficult part of using Qwizdom.  However, I must add that I thought I was going to be resourceful and download the user guide from the Qwizdom website to obtain all the information I needed on how to operate the device.  The user guide did help in a few areas, but overall, it made learning Qwizdom much harder than it actually is. I already use Power-Point during lectures, so that was just a matter of inserting new slides. On a side note, if you do not have a Power-Point presentation, you can make one with just survey questions and still use Qwizdom.

Qwizdom Fast Track

What has been the easiest part of Qwizdom for you?

The easiest part of using Qwizdom is everything.  Once you have things set-up, the rest is just of matter of plugging in the device and having fun. 

How are you using Qwizdom in the classroom?

Initially, I was just going to use Qwizdom to take random surveys on material covered in class to gauge if the students are grasping the information.  This is the simplest of all the features available in Qwizdom with almost no set-up needed; just open your Power-Point presentation, plug it in and go.  However, once I saw how easy it is to use I am now playing games in the classroom.  Once the initial set-up is complete, you can have all the students in the class compete again each other or have teams compete against other teams. 

(From left to right) Isaiah J. and Joyce W.

How do you think the students responded to Qwizdom?

My students LOVED using Qwizdom.  I even had several students come to me after class and tell me how much fun they had.  The students were talking about the course material, teaching each other, and gaining a better understanding of the course material.  They were laughing, competing, and engaged in learning.  The best thing for me was seeing how excited they were about learning.  A few of my students even pulled out their text books and started re-reading the material in the middle of the game!

Is there anything else you would like to add?

My biggest suggestion to anyone who is interested in using Qwizdom is to speak with someone who has used the device before.  Let the person know how you intend on using it so they can help you.  Don’t try to "figure it out" because it appears to be confusing when in reality it’s not at all. 

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Be sure to sign up for the new training class on November 14th from 3 to 4 p.m. - Qwizdom Simplified. All you need to do it go to our COM faculty training page, fill and the form, check the appropriate box and click submit.  If you are interested in using Qwizdom in your class, contact Instructional Technology at extension 8207.