With new tool, attendance is just a click away

Students who skip out on large lectures may find themselves caught in the act by new technology.

Professors in universities across the country are taking attendance in large lectures with the click of a button, thanks to the Personal Response System.

The device is a wireless remote that students use to provide feedback during class and that allows professors to encourage student feedback and participation -- or to take attendance, if they wish.

Currently, only one class at Penn utilizes this technology, but peer schools like Cornell University are increasingly employing it.

The system allows professors to pose multiple-choice or true-or-false questions during their lectures, and students can answer through the remotes. A receiver then instantly plots the data on a graph.

The system lets teachers and TAs "manage larger class sizes more effectively and get a better picture of where there class is," said, Eric Timmons, president of GTCO CalComp, which makes the system.

Chemistry professor Ivan Dmochowski uses the system in his Chemistry 101 class and said it lets him make sure that students are learning actively and that he isn't moving too quickly.

And, for students, it provides an anonymous way to participate in class.

"I think people find it kind of fun to see if they got the right answer and how the class responded as whole," Dmochowski said.

But at universities such as Cornell, professors are using the system -- beyond its original intention of gaining student feedback -- to take attendance. The system is even taking the place of written quizzes.

The clickers cost about $30, and some schools require students to purchase their own. When students buzz in during class, a computer keeps track of their response.

According to Cornell sociology professor Angela Gonzales, who teaches a lecture of about 300 students and uses the clickers, attendance can be a problem due to the level of anonymity, but she feels that the system is helping.

"Students know Big Brother is watching -- we know that they are there," Gonzales said.

Cornell biology professor Randy Wayne uses the system not just for attendance but as a component of students' grades as well.

In many lectures, he asks the students a multiple-choice question on material from the last lecture.

Scores can even be recorded on Blackboard and similar systems.

But while the system may seem like a flawless way to ensure student attendance in large lectures, it can be beaten, according to Wayne.

"A way to cheat is to bring in your roommate's clicker if he wants to sleep in," he said.

In Wayne's class, students caught cheating are assigned a two-page reflection paper on Cornell's code of academic integrity.

Other problems have resulted from the fact that the device works by an infrared signal that might not be received if something blocks the path from the remote to the receiver.

Updates have fixed this problem by using radio waves, which are less easily blocked.

College sophomore Marisa Moreta is in Dmochowski's Chemistry class and says she likes the use of the transmitters.

"It makes us more involved in the class," she said. "Sometimes just sitting in lecture can be boring, listening to someone talk for hour."

According to Timmons, many students "like the system because it breaks up the monotony of the standard classroom environment.

However, "Some don't like it, because some students don't like to go to class," he added.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.