Pondering the pros and cons of PRS use

In large lecture classes, it is just as challenging for students to actively participate as it is for instructors to track their understanding of the material. With increasing class sizes, more and more professors are employing Personal Response Systems (PRS) during lectures in an attempt to engage students ' attention as well as monitor their understanding.

PRS units are small wireless devices that resemble a television remote. When students submit a response, sensors installed across the classroom pick up signals transmitted from these devices, and the distribution of results is immediately displayed.

The Schools of Physics and Chemistry were among the first to use PRS in introductory classes two years ago with the aim of creating a more interactive classroom.

" Passive learning is a waste of time, " said Martin Jarrio, an academic professional who teaches the introductory physics classes.

" For the students to really learn, they need to be actively engaged in doing something, " Jarrio said. " The PRS is the only practical way that we can find to get that sort of engagement to occur. "

Instructors who use the Personal Response System require students to purchase individual PRS units.

" It ' s really hard sometimes to get a feel for whether or not what you ' re covering in class is getting across, " said George McKelvy, who taught a general chemistry class last semester that had over 220 students.

" Especially for the very large classes, it gives students the opportunity to interact with the class when otherwise they wouldn ' t have that opportunity, " he said.

Elizabeth Cadogan, a first-year Mechanical Engineering major, said that PRS is a useful tool in her physics class because it helps her professor " gauge how well people understand the material as we go through the lecture, so that he doesn ' t have to waste time on stuff if he doesn ' t need to. "

According to Melissa Bachman of the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), the basis for PRS has been " peer instruction, " a method developed by professors at Harvard University as a way for students to become active learners by engaging in discussion with their peers.

Bachman said that with peer instruction, students are encouraged to discuss the concepts behind a PRS quiz by defending an answer or questioning a neighbor ' s misconception. " It is through social negotiation that you have to clarify your understanding of a concept, " Bachman said.

The use of PRS has also spread to other departments.

" It is by no means a replacement for instructors, but it helps the professor understand what we understood, " said Will Welch, a third-year International Affairs major who used PRS to answer concept-based quizzes in his International Political Economy class last spring.

Shaun David, a second-year Biomedical Engineering major, acknowledged that PRS has helped him " stay focused in class and absorb what the professor is saying. "

However, he does not like the attendance policies that often come with the use of PRS.

For example, some classes such as physics and chemistry count daily PRS quizzes as part or all of an attendance grade.

" We found a direct correlation between student failure in classes and student lack of attendance in physics classes, " said Turgay Uzer, a professor in the School of Physics. He said this correlation was a large factor in instituting attendance policies in introductory physics classes this semester.

Still, many students do not like the idea of being " forced " to attend class. In addition, some add that the original intent of using PRS is not reflected now that it has evolved into more of an attendance-taking device rather than something to increase understanding.

" [The PRS] didn ' t help at all, because the questions were not geared to making you understand, " said second-year Biomedical Engineering major Joseph Caubo, who has used a PRS in both his physics and chemistry classes.

" It just felt like the professor asked you questions to make sure you were there, instead of making you understand the material, " Caubo said.

The cost of a PRS unit, which retails for about $30 at the bookstore, is another downside for some students.

Mario Flores, a Materials Science and Engineering major who only had to use a PRS for one class, said he does not believe it was a worthwhile investment.

" I don ' t like it because I had to pay $30 for it, " he said, and added that paying for something that forced him to go to class made the purchase even less worthwhile.

Still other limitations to the PRS include the time-consuming nature of preparing PRS questions on the part of the professors, which takes time away from the main lecture.

However, Jarrio pointed out that this system has been a new experience for everyone.

" It ' s a stumbling process - both from our perspective as instructors and the students, " he said. " By the end of this semester, we would have enough of a feel for what ' s going on that by next fall, we can implement it in a manner that is a little bit more reliable and a little bit more useful to students. "

Bachman agreed that any drawbacks of the PRS would be compensated by its long-term usefulness. " We haven ' t used it that long...so initially when [professors] use it, they may not use it very often and they may not use it very well, but it takes getting used to, " she said. " You have to start somewhere. "

Instructors like Uzer believe that the potential success of the Personal Response System as a student-learning tool lies in the students themselves.

" When someone gives you an answer on their PRS, you don ' t know how they arrived at that answer. So it does really require participation on the part of the students to put some honest effort into it, " Uzer said. " But if they just use it as a remote control...it is not going to help anybody. "

PRS receivers are currently installed in 14 classrooms and plans are underway to install them in several more.