By now most college instructors know the importance of building community in the classroom. Building community is about creating a space in which students and instructors are committed to a shared learning goal achieved through frequent collaboration and social interaction. Research shows that when students feel that they belong to their academic community, that they matter to one another, and that they can find emotional, social, and cognitive support for one another, they are able to engage in dialogue and reflection more actively and take ownership and responsibility of their own learning (“Community Building in the Classroom,” 2023).
One approach to building community is through structured interactions where students get the chance to get to know one another and learn what other students are thinking. A polling tool such as iClicker can help facilitate these activities. While polling tools are most often used for formative assessment, there are ways to use them to build community. Below are some easy, low stakes activities to build community.
Peer Instruction
Peer instruction is an evidence-based instructional practice that consists of asking students conceptual questions during class time and collecting their answers through polling. The model flows through the following steps.
- Critical question posed
- Students given time to think
- Students record individual answers
- Students convince their neighbors they have the correct answer(peer discussion)
- Students record revised answers
- Feedback to teacher: tally of answers
- Instructor’s explanation of correct answer (from Vickrey, et., al, 2017).
In comparison with traditional lecture, this pedagogy overwhelmingly improves students’ ability to solve conceptual and quantitative problems and to apply knowledge to novel problems. Students value peer instruction as a useful learning tool and are more likely to persist in courses utilizing it. Likewise, instructors value the improved student engagement and learning observed with peer instruction (Vickrey, et., al, 2017).
iClicker makes it easy to add peer instruction to a traditional lecture course without making drastic changes. It can get your students engaged and talking, and help you learn and respond to what your students are thinking, both of which can lead to improved student learning. After presenting content, begin with a high-level critical thinking question. For example, physics students might be asked “How does cold weather affect a steel roller coaster?” Each student answers the poll before sharing their thoughts. The instructor can then analyze the responses. If most students know the answer, move on. But if less than 70% of the students got the answer correct, have the students engage in peer discussion. Ask students to explain their reasoning to a peer, then let students respond to the question again. How did they do? Provide a detailed explanation about how to arrive at the correct answer.
Try the new iClicker Groups feature! iClicker now offers group polling, which supports up to 200 groups. The group feature can simplify peer instruction. For example, when a group poll starts, students will see their group members’ names. Each group member answers the question on their own. When all members have polled the group looks at the distribution of responses and tries to bring the group to a consensus. This requires groups to communicate and make an argument for why their answer is correct. Once the group comes to a consensus, the poll is submitted. For more details about group polling, read the iClicker Groups Instructor Guide.
Exit Ticket
An exit ticket is an educational method implemented at the end of a class session as a way for students to reflect on their own learning and provide a formative assessment. Students' responses might include feedback on a lesson or group work, self-reflection, or questions on class content. iClicker allows for up to 140 characters for short answers. You can export the poll responses to a spreadsheet. Viewing the spreadsheet is an easy way to scroll through student responses. If you would like to allow students more space to write, the short answer feature in Canvas Ungraded Survey in Classic Quizzes works well for this question type. After students respond, go to Canvas and select “Survey Statistics” to download the spreadsheet. See figure 1 for an example of a spreadsheet of student responses.
Figure 1. Spreadsheet of student responses.
Ranking on a Likert Scale
There may be times when you would like students to rank how they feel or how strongly they agree or disagree with something. For example, students may read a New York Times editorial about a political position, then share their level of support for that position. This information can be an important starting point when discussing the topic because you will know exactly where students are starting. And students will have to support their position or belief. For sensitive topics, iClicker allows for anonymous polling.
Another idea is to simply “take the temperature” in the room. For example, you may be wondering how students are feeling about the upcoming exam. Instructors can create a slide and use the editing tool to add a long arrow across the slide to represent the scale. Mark the scale as to what each end designates. Use the “target” question in iClicker and have students place their dots along the part of the scale that best represents their feelings as in figure 2.
Figure 2. Likert scale before and after polling.
Ice Breakers
Consider an ice breaker at the beginning of the semester using the “target” question in iClicker. Place a map of the world on a slide. Ask, “Where were you born?” or “Where did you go to high school? Students poll by adding a dot to a location on the map as in Figure 3. The class may be surprised to see how far some students have traveled!
Figure 3. World map after polling.
Try iClicker Groups to break the ice and get students up and moving. Place students into small groups using the iClicker Group feature. Then, ask students to walk around the room and find their group. As students figure out how to find their group, they are essentially building community by making connections with many of their classmates.
Instructors can also poll about non-content related topics as a warm up before class. For example, “Who watched the debate last night?” Research shows that students want an emotional connection with their instructors and sometimes going off topic helps students see the instructor as a relatable person and increases their sense of ease and engagement with the class. One student shared the following quote in a class survey: “It’s weird but I feel cared for when the professor talks to us about things completely not related to the class...the more it doesn’t have to do with the class, the more I feel cared for” ( Larson, 2015 ).
Making Predictions
Research on human learning shows that students need to be engaged before diving into new content. One way to do this is with predictive activities. “Asking students to use their existing knowledge and skills and to struggle with the material before we teach it increases engagement and deeper learning—even when their predictions were wrong (Lang, 2021).” For example, chemistry students about to learn the principles of density may be asked to first watch a short video where 1 egg is dropped in tap water and another egg is dropped in salt water. They are asked a multiple choice polling question predicting what will happen to the eggs in each scenario. Students can share ideas with a classmate to benefit from each other's prior knowledge.
Next, instructors show the iClicker poll results to students before it closes to see how the whole class is responding. Let students continue to vote. Do the bars change, showing students have changed their response?
Whole class predictive activities build a sense of community as the students share the same goal. When students make predictions, they must draw on their prior knowledge and make inferences. Researchers suggest that the driving mechanism behind the learning power of prediction is the quick emotional burst we get from seeing how our predictions turn out in comparison to the class (Lang, 2021).
If you would like help getting started with iClicker, please contact the LSA Learning & Teaching Consultants at LSATechnologyServices@umich.edu
References
Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning. Community Building in the Classroom. Retrieved May 2023 from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/teaching-with-technology/teaching-online/community-building/
Larsen, A. (2015). Who cares? Developing a pedagogy of caring in higher education. All Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 4287. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/4287
Research-Based Implementation of Peer Instruction: A Literature Review (2017). Trisha Vickrey, Kaitlyn Rosploch, Reihaneh Rahmanian, Matthew Pilarz, and Marilyne Stains. CBE—Life Sciences Education. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.14-11-0198
Lang, J. (2021. Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. Jossy-Bass.
