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Using interactive handsets in lectures

This is an interactive session at the TLS conference 11:15am-12:30, Friday 10 May 2002, Kelvin conference centre.

Working Session 3 -- Who wants to be a millionaire? -- using interactive handsets in lectures.
Dr Quintin Cutts, Computing Science / Dr Steve Draper, Psychology

This session is about the use of a handset technology in lecture theatres designed to allow increased interactivity in lectures. The technology, essentially similar to the "ask the audience" option in the TV show "Who wants to be a millionaire?", allows the presenter to put up a multiple choice question, and for everyone in the audience to register their answer privately, with the aggregated results displayed to everyone. (With the combined financial assistance from the V-P for Learning and Teaching and an EPSRC-funded project, GRUMPS, 600 mobile lecture theatre handsets, with associated receivers and software were purchased.)

In this session we will demonstrate the equipment, and we will introduce discussions on:

What we have found in the last 6 months of trial use, at all undergraduate levels (1 to 4), in audience sizes from 20 to 300, and in a number of contrasting disciplines (from philosophy to biology); including the evaluations conducted on those trials. (There is an interim report on this.)
Our experience in the longest concerted use, which was in a first year computer science module. This application was related to concerns about what limits learning quality in that course, and done in parallel to other investigations on this topic.
Some theoretical ideas on how this technology might enhance learning. (There is a published paper on this.)