Briefly speaking: Keypads clicking for some testing

Walk into some of the lecture halls on campus, and you may think you've stumbled on a college quiz show. More faculty members are using personal response systems or wireless keypads, called clickers, as a high-tech way to gauge students' understanding of material and to conduct quizzes.

But testing for midterms and finals hasn't changed all that much throughout the years.

"Traditional paper and pencil exams are still the norm for most courses," says Fred Wood, interim vice provost of undergraduate studies.

"Clickers are a great way for the faculty to obtain feedback as to how the students are learning," Wood says. "But problems with true authentication of the user will always plague efforts to use clickers or online testing for more extensive exams."

Wood says most faculty use a mix of multiple choice, to cover the breadth of material, along with full problems and short essays, still the best way to determine a student's approach to problem solving on a test.

Quizzes and attendance

Jeffrey Sherman, a psychology professor, is one of about a dozen faculty members using the clickers, according to the UC Davis Bookstore. He is trying the clicking for the first time this quarter as a class participation tool. Sherman says it can be helpful to ask a series of quiz questions and get feedback on how well students are grasping concepts, but he doesn't envision using it on larger tests.

When a faculty member asks a question in a lecture, students push a button on their clicker, a small wireless keypad, to answer — similar to a quiz show. A receiver on the instructor's laptop collects the answers. In addition to providing immediate feedback and giving quizzes, the clickers can be used to take attendance. Students must buy the clicker at the bookstore ($45 new and $34 used) and can later sell them back like they would a used textbook.

The arts

Testing in the arts, such as theatre and music, involves a mix of methods. Instructors may use scantrons for listening tests in music classes — they can play a selection and students can choose the composer from a list. Practical exams are also commonly used where a student is required to play on a keyboard or other instrument.

Peter Lichtenfels, chair of the theatre and dance department, says testing remains old-fashioned in his field — a mix of essays and projects. "We work with the body, so we're not going the high-tech route anytime soon," he says.