ENroute Yearbook 2017-18
Is That Your Final Answer?
Using Voting Technology and Team Competition to Motivate New Learners
Holly Patrick, The Business School, Fellow
Keeping the attention of a whole class of students can be challenging enough
in a 2 hour lecture. When asked to deliver an intensive 4 day module to external
professionals, my thoughts quickly turned to how keep the students motivated and
attentive during the long sessions. I had one vital piece of information – they were
likely to be very competitive.
I decided to run a competition across the whole delivery. I split the class into teams
and awarded marks based on individual performance in mini-quizzes after each topic
(using the Turning Point class voting system) and team performance in case study
exercises.
When I handed out the voting handsets, I immediately noticed more books and
highlighter pens being pulled out of bags. Excited every time the ‘Checkpoint Quiz’
slide appeared, the students were completely raucous when we reached final points
reveal (and prize-giving) at the end of
the week.
Aside from the very positive feedback
we received on how much students
had enjoyed the week, the teaching
team were able to reinforce key
points without simply repeating them
(through the answer session), and we
had immediate feedback on which
concepts they had understood and
which needed to be revised.
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