Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Results of May 2009 Vote to Vote! Presentation

Many faculty members use classroom response to engage students in their classes. For the past year, Computing Services' MediaTech group has worked with our own faculty members to evaluate and select a standard product that meets broader campus instructional needs. On May 6, 2009, we continued our efforts to engage faculty through a CRS presentation of two products. Through this presentation, faculty was able to weigh in on the final decision of a classroom response system product. We received overwhelming support of i>clicker and are pleased to announce our plans to implement the product this summer in all Tier 1 large auditoriums.

The i>clicker system supports both Windows and Mac platforms virtually identically.  It also supports the concept of a course via its iGrader gradebook application, as well as a more automated process of roster building than our current system. The i>clicker system has a strong reliability track record—it is currently used in a 1200 seat auditorium at Cornell. Carnegie Mellon faculty members believe it to be the ideal choice to meet our broad campus instructional needs.

Beginning June 1 and continuing throughout the year, faculty members may borrow Instructor Kits to use in their offices as they prepare course lecture materials.  The kit is comprised of a receiver, instructor remote and a bag and can be borrowed from Media Technology Services Equipment Office in Cyert Hall A74.

We greatly value the feedback and support we have received from faculty and encourage additional input as we move into the implementation phase of this project.

For additional information and continual status updates on the i>clicker project, please visit http://www.cmu.edu/computing/class-event/news/crs/index.html.