Introduction
Student-response Systems (SRS)
are an evolving in-class-student-polling technology designed
to create an engaging and inviting learning environment that will maximize active learning,
especially in large-enrollment lectures. This technology has been used in higher education since the
1960s. (Judson and Sawada) Ward et al. divide the evolution of SRS technology into three
generations: early homemade and commercial versions that were hard-wired into classrooms
(1960s & 70s), 2
nd
generation wireless versions that incorporated infrared and radio-frequency
wireless keypads (1980s - present ), and 3
rd
generation Web-based systems (1990s – present).
Earlier systems were originally designed for traditional, face-to-face courses; more recently some of
the brands are adaptable to online courses as well, using WebCt, Blackboard, etc. Before higher
education became interested, audience- or group-response systems were first developed for use in
business (focus groups, employee training, and conference meetings) and government (electronic
vote tabulation and display in legislatures and military training).
The operation of student-response systems is a simple three-step process: 1) during class
discussion or lecture, the instructor displays
or verbalizes a question or problem
– previously
1
Unfortunately, there appears to be no standardization of terminology in the literature;
student-polling systems are variously described by vendors and academic users as: audience-paced
feedback systems (APF), classroom performance systems (CPS), electronic response systems
(ERS), hyper-active teaching technology (H-ITT), interactive engagement (IE), interactive audience
response systems (IRIS), interactive learning systems (ILS), interactive student-response systems
(ISRS), personal response systems (PRS), group response systems (GRS), and wireless response
systems (WRS). We will use the SRS acronym in this paper.
2
The question or problem is typically displayed using a classroom projection screen;
however, some newer student-response systems can display prompts on the video screen of each
student’s input device (“smart” keypads with LCD displays, PDAs, text-messaging cell phones,
notebook or laptop computers).
3
Depending on the SRS system, question/response types may include: 1) the simple
true/false, yes/no, or multiple-choice formats or 2) the more powerful formats of mean numeric
entry, correct numeric entry, multiple-choice with multiple correct responses, rating scale 1-n,
sequencing, or even short answer and fill-in-the-blank.
2
Convention