Browser-based Mobile Clickers: Implementation and Challenges

Didactic strategies in the classroom are influenced by factors like class size, prior class knowledge and level of class attention. In large classes, student activation has to follow different didactic approaches in order to obtain ad-hoc feedback from individual students than in small classes. One approach to increase class attention are classroom voting tools (known from quiz show formats for real-time audience feedback) that provide the teacher with feedback about the students’ prior knowledge and learning progress. Additionally, feedback and attention increasing systems seem to be essential within spatially distributed classes (following the lecturer via web streaming), due to the fact that two-way communication is limited in these cases. Supporting the demanded didactic functions, we developed a browser-based mobile clicker application within Learn@WU, the large-scale online learning environment of the WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business). We introduced and evaluated the application in lectures of the introductory study period. The integration into the established online environment shall support teacher acceptance and usability.