Using Student Response Systems
in Economics and Finance Classes
Annual Meeting of the Academy of
Economics and Finance
Jean Snavely
and Michelle Trawick
What is a SRS (clicker)?
• Radio transmitter with unique student
identification
• Easy to use
• Delivery is Power Point based
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Rationale for Clickers
• Student engagement
• Promote active learning
• Continuous improvement
– Students
– Faculty
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Rationale continued
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Proper use of technology
Interaction
Assess student understanding
Apply material for better understanding
Stimulate discussion
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Personal Experience
• Statistics
• Principles of Finance
• Small- to Medium- size classes
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Applications
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Attendance
Survey
Quiz
In-class scoring
Breaks
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What is your experience with
clickers?
1. I have used clickers in
class.
2. I want to learn more
because I might
adopt clickers.
3. I am curious about
this technology.
4. I have never heard of
clickers before today.
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Statistics Examples
• Time considerations – definition vs.
quantitative questions
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The standard deviation for the
standard normal distribution
1. is always equal to
one.
2. is always equal to
zero.
3. can be any value.
4. can be any positive
value.
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1 5 2
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ro
.
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0% 0% 0% 0%
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X is a normally distributed random variable with a mean
of 22 and a standard deviation of 5. The probability that X
is less than 9.7 is
0.0000
0.4931
0.0069
0.9931
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0%
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31
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69
5
31
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0%
19
0.
99
21
3
0%
0.
49
1 5 2
0 of
0
0%
0.
00
1.
2.
3.
4.
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90
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Finance Examples
• Internalizing a concept
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You have the choice of a sure
$500,000 or a 50-50 chance of
$600,000 or 0.
10
1. Take the $500,000
2. Take the gamble
0%
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Take the $500,000
0%
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Take the gamble
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You are on a TV game show and can
choose one of the following. Which
would you take?
1.
2.
3.
4.
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$1,000 in cash
50-50 chance of winning $4,000
20% chance of winning $10,000
5% chance of winning $100,000
0%
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2
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$1,000 in
cash
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0%
50-50
chance
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15of
winning
$4,000
0%
0%
20% chance 5% chance
of winning
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18 of winning
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$10,000
$100,000
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Most managers are ________ since
they require a higher return for a given
level of risk.
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Ri
ee
kin
sk
fre
t
en
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0%
e
0%
sk
s
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sk
i
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Ri
3
nd
iff
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ve
sk
a
2
Ri
1
0%
g
0%
Ri
Risk averse
Risk indifferent
Risk seeking
Risk free
rs
e
1.
2.
3.
4.
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Best Practices
• Incentives for student participation
• Appropriate use of timing
• Administer at beginning of class to allow time for
discussion
• Use response tables
• Make sure signals are being received before
assigning points
– Icebreaker slide or polling test
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Best Practices continued
• Read the questions and answers; announce
when the timer has started
• No solar powered calculators
• Remind students to bring clicker if they are
not supplied
• Do not start exercise in normal or slide sorter
view (reveals the answers)
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Best Practices continued
• Make students individually responsible for
their answers – copying a neighbor’s response
is cheating and will be punished
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Turning Reports
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Turning Results by Student
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Anecdotal Observations
• Students like the “friendly” competition
• MOST students respond well to the pressure of
timed response. Though some blatantly DO NOT
LIKE IT.
• There is a significant amount of communication
between questions and after the exercise.
• The students have asked for the slides to be posted
as a study tool.
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Comments from Students
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Nice break from taking notes
Let’s us know if we “get it”
Instant feedback on what we’ve been learning
Extra practice on answering multiple choice questions and we
need all the help we can get on that.
Nice to have applications
Change of pace
These clickers are much better than the ones we had in
geography. Those were a waste of time.
I HATE being timed.
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Problems
• Eats up class time that had been devoted to lecture. Pace has
slowed.
– Solution: I’ve had to leave out some material that I would have tried to cover.
NOTE: some semesters have gone this slowly without the clickers.
• More administrative duties are required.
• Two batteries have died.
– Solution: Polling tests required at the beginning of exercise. Those students
without response will get a replacement.
• Remote control mouse
– Solution: Channels changed on all mice.
• Merging scores for students across sessions has been problematic.
– Solution: The error is in the software. No neat way around it. The company is
working on the problem.
• I’m not convinced that they are a better use of the student’s time.
– Solution: pedagogical research idea
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If you plan to adopt, be creative.
Answer the following question then return your
clicker.
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Questions?
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