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Some tactics when using EVS questions

• Announce at the start of each lecture whether EVS will be used. (Or alternatively have a question up and running as the students come in.) This is so the students fish the handsets out of their bags, and save disturbance later. Such a question might ask for their view on an issue raised at the end of the last lecture, or in seminars, or on the VLE, and so underline continuity and connection across media.
  

• For each question, say in half a sentence what the (pedagogical) point of this question is e.g. "this is a past exam question to show you what you need to learn", "this is to launch a discussion to get you thinking about a significant issue in this course". Students mainly judge the value of EVS use in terms of whether it helps their learning: it is probably worth just mentioning to them what you think the value is each time.
  

• Consider putting as a footnote at the bottom of the preceding slide that the next slide is an EVS question. This both helps the lecturer not to be taken by surprise, and allows the students to get ready by finding their handset.
  

• As you present each question, before starting the voting get them to discuss what they might answer with a neighbour for at least a minute. Not only good practice in general, but it involves and includes those without a handset that day.
  

• Consider using colour cue cards (or cubes) for students without an EVS handset to register their votes with. (See here for such methods and a reference.)
  

• Consider using your seminars to ask for some direct feedback from students on your EVS use in lectures: what they do and don't like, whether the ways you are using questions are helpful or not. (Sometimes things that felt bad while presenting seemed OK to students; sometimes things that seemed to go well weren't really valued; sometimes things that seemed to draw a dead, uninteractive silence were actually really valued by students e.g. for exposing what they need to work on more.)

  It is also possible to use one minute papers for this, e.g. with the question "what is the thing you like most, and the thing you llike least, about the use of EVS in my lectures?".

For more advice at this tactical level see the main website, particularly: