USING CLICKERS WITH NURSING STUDENTS
Background:
In July 2007, the Learning & Teaching Committee at Swansea University adopted an institution-wide Information Literacy Strategy. Library & Information Services, having spear-headed the policy, brought in Sharon Markless (Kings’ Institute of Learning Teaching, Kings’ College, London) to run a one-day workshop to develop librarians’ understanding of good IL teaching. Lessons learnt from the workshop included the importance of:
1. capturing the interest of the class;
2. determining students’ existing level of skills;
3. providing feedback to students;
4. creating an interactive dialogue between tutor and students.
Often students can be diffident about revealing a lack of knowledge, or afraid of appearing a “show off”. This can make interactive dialogue between students and tutor difficult, and inhibit attempts to get a quick view of the level of existing knowledge amongst students
Aims:
The aim was to develop and test an interactive induction session using the Turning Point audience response system to improve interactivity, dialogue and to provide feedback to tutors and students during Information Literacy sessions.
Methods:
Using Turning Point, Q&A sessions were designed for use in induction sessions for undergraduate nursing students. Questions were displayed in a PowerPoint presentation onscreen, and students answered these anonymously using keypads to select from multiple choice answers.
Questions were designed to assess, for example, students’ existing knowledge of nursing journals. The questions were also designed to open up a dialogue by establishing areas of interest amongst the students – e.g. adult, child or mental health nursing. At the end of the session, questions were asked to assess how much of the session they had retained.
Results:
- Students enjoyed the new sessions.
- Tutors were able to have a better idea of the level of knowledge of students & were able to avoid ‘talking down’ to students or ‘talking over their heads’.
- Testing at the end of the session allowed them to see, anonymously, how they had progressed. Many were pleasantly surprised – as were the tutors!
- Tutors felt that the system was easy to use, and that it enabled them to quickly gauge the level of knowledge amongst students at the start of the session, and to see how they had improved by the end.
- The anonymity offered by the system encouraged participation, but did not provide data on particular students who might need extra help. The software, however, could be used differently to provide such data.
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