PRS (Personal Response System) describes a technology that enables teachers to poll students in large classrooms anonymously & displays the results in real time.
At LSE we use a system called TurningPoint, which works as a plug-in in PowerPoint. Interactive multiple choice question slides are created in a .ppt presentation. Students use “clickers”, i.e. small remote control devices, to select their answers. When a poll closes, the aggregated results are displayed in graphs on the same interactive slide (see first screencast below).
The main educational benefit of this classroom technology is to enable short discussions within large lectures prompted by questions. But there are many ways of how you can use PRS in your teaching. See below ("Use it") for some ideas.
Also known as...
Audience Response System (ARS), Electronic Voting System (EVS), Classroom Response System (CRS)
Similar technologies
Polleverywhere: gathers live responses from participants through the web. Voters participate through their mobile phones, smartphones, or the web. We have a polleverywhere account that allows you to poll up to 50 respondents, during any one session. Unlike the TurningPoint system you can borrow, Polleverywhere allows voters to send in free text answers.
Txttools: use for instant communication between departments and students. See our text messaging page.
Use it
PRS can be useful for:
Peer instruction: Allow students to discuss & defend their answers to a problem, vote again to see improvement.Agile teaching: change direction according to the mood/ choices/ level of understanding
Establishing baseline: initial gauging of where student knowledge is at
Improving attentiveness: engaging students more actively with the material by asking questions in regular intervals
Instant feedback: on understanding, opinions, attitudes… also allows teachers to review their own material (collected post-session)
Where next?
Software:
To prepare the slides you need to install the software (plugin) which you can download from this page (requires LSE username and password). Download the most recently added software.
Once you have added the plugin, you can access a comprehensive user guide. The makers also offer online tutorials.
Make a start:
We created a short How 2 Guide (PDF) on using PRS at the LSE which gives a quick overview of the basic steps.
If you would like a demonstration or advice on how to create well-formed and relevant questions, to borrow clickers and receiver, and/ or for more help and information please contact Sonja Grussendorf via clt-support@lse.ac.uk.
More information
Screencasts:
1. How to make an easy start with TurningPoint - short instructive video on youTube (click on image):
2. How to compare outcomes of two slides in a third - short instructive video on youTube (click on image):
Engaging Students through in-class technology - special interest group.