Empowering or compelling reluctant participators using audience response systems

This article investigates the impact of an audience response system (ARS) on student engagement in undergraduate university courses. A survey was administered to students in a dozen courses piloting the ARS system. On 13 out of 14 measures the majority of students thought the system was helpful. Overall, students were more positive about the use of the ARS in courses that used the tool for formative feedback (empowering) rather than for grading or attendance purposes (compelling). The authors discuss the positive impact of the ARS on the engagement of `reluctant participators' or students who reported that they are least likely to participate in class under normal conditions. Reluctant participators' perceptions of the helpfulness of the ARS were compared to those of non-reluctant participators. Finally, student comments were analyzed to determine why students with the most negative feelings about the ARS felt the way they did and which teaching practices using the ARS were perceived to have the greatest value by the students.