Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 11 Summer 2019 | Page 52

as learning tools, but, as importantly, as means to
engage students in the classroom, is documented
by extensive research (e.g., Fies & Marshall, 2006).
However, there are shortcomings in this technology:
their implementation is limited to multiple-choice
questions, and students or the institution need to
purchase the device (~$30 in 2013).
The widespread use of laptops and smartphones
pushed the development of response technology
that would use laptops and/or smartphones to
implement peer instruction without the need of a
dedicated device, also opening up the range of types
of questions that could be asked.
Web-based audience response systems
There are no fewer than eleven SRSs that can be
used with electronic devices like smartphones
(Prud’homme-Generaux, 2017). Kahoot (www.
kahoot.com) is a game-based learning platform that
turns multiple-choice questions into fun learning
games that foster social learning by engaging
players in 180+ countries. Poll Everywhere (www.
polleverywhere.com) and Mentimeter (www.menti.
com) are popular with college educators, and allow
instructors to poll students during class and conduct
formative assessment. Both of them are easy to
implement, include a range of possible question
types, and include a free version (Nosek, 2017;
Prud’homme-Generaux, 2017). They display results
in diagrams, word clouds, text answers, and more.
Top Hat, formerly known as TopHatMonocle (www.
tophat.com), is a commercial response system
created specifically for education, and that allows to
record responses by individual students: students
use a laptop, tablet, or smartphone to answer
questions in class. A comparison of the features of
seven of these SRSs is provided by Poll Everywhere
(2019) for marketing purposes.
In 2007, Mazur created a web-based audience
response system called Learning Catalytics™
(learningcatalytics.com) to fully implement the peer
learning pedagogy (Schell et al., 2013). Since 2013,
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it is marketed by Pearson, a textbook publishing
company, but remains independent from their
products. While TopHat and Learning Catalytics
provide similar features, the fundamental difference
between the two SRSs is the ability to dynamically
assign students to groups based on their response
available in Learning Catalytics™ (Crouch et al.,
2007; Schell et al., 2013, McConnell et al., 2017).
Case study: Learning Catalytics
Since 2001 the author has been teaching
introductory physical geology to up to 500
undergraduates each fall semester at Iowa State
University. She has experimented with various active
learning technologies, including flashcards and
clickers. In 2015 she “flipped” the class, developing
reading assignments and homework to be completed
before each of the three weekly class periods (e.g.,
Mazur, 1997; Gross et al., 2015; Boevé et al., 2017;
Ryan & Reed, 2016; McNally et al., 2017).
The first course within Learning Catalytics™ was
developed in summer 2015. It is here that the
educator must invest time, creating an extensive
database of questions covering the broad curriculum
of the course. Each course module designed for each
class period pools questions from this database, or
from the public pool available through the system.
In following semesters, a copy of the original course
is created and questions and modules are updated.
At the beginning of the semester, students activate
their Learning Catalytics™ account and register
for the class. This allows the instructor to record,
grade, and give points to all that they will submit
throughout the semester.
The class consists of three weekly 50-minute
periods over 15 weeks. Students complete assigned
readings and an online homework assignment on
the readings before each class period. During the
first five minutes of class, following announcements
and reminders, students submit a written reflection
on their readings using Learning Catalytics™. This
is done to encourage students to complete their