Teaching tip: Use student devices for instant participation

August 19, 2014

Marissa Carl

Nearly all students have at least one electronic device with them in class -- be it a smartphone, tablet or laptop -- which has led to the emergence of online immediate student response systems.

Socrative.com is one that balances functionality with simplicity and intuitiveness. It works great from any web browser and on many devices.

As an instructor, you create a free account and give your “room” a name. This is required once and remains yours forever. Students simply go to socrative.com and enter the room.

There are three types of questions possible: multiple choice, true/false and short answer.

Create questions ahead of time to host an in-class quiz or pose a question at any time by launching a Quick Question with only two clicks. Just think, this tool allows you to walk around the classroom answering questions while monitoring class progress from your phone or tablet.

Go to iTeachU for more about Socrative and other student interaction tools.

-- Teaching tip by Rorick Peterson, associate professor of mechanical engineering and a current CITE Fellow