Tag: quizzes
Socrative: A Free Alternative to iClicker and Top Hat
The following is a guest post from Fulton Tom and Bryan Breguet, Economics Department:
Many instructors are now using audience response systems such as iClicker or Top Hat to engage students in their classrooms. These user-friendly systems allow instructors to administer interactive activities such as quizzes and receive immediate student feedback. The caveat, however, is that they are far from being free. Both iClicker and Top Hat charge students a subscription fee. While the fee is not a big expense, it adds to the already rising cost of post-secondary education. Should we really expect students to pay tuition fees and buy textbooks and then to pay a subscription fee so that they can take the quizzes? We believe that more instructors should be aware of Socrative.
D2L Updates
Welcome back to a new semester. D2L has made some changes to the names of tools and added a My Media tool, as well as new features for the Grades, Groups, Quizzes and Discussions tools.
Tool name changes:
Former Name | Updated Name |
Dropbox | Assignments |
News | Announcements |
Pager | Instant Messages |
Edit Course | Course Admin |
In Content, New | Upload/Create |
In Content, Add Existing Activities | Existing Activities |
If you refer to any of the tools within your course materials, you will need to update the language.
For example, if you have instructions in your course outline for students to submit assignments to “Dropbox,” you will need to edit it to read “Assignments tool.”
Reading Round Up
Here’s what we have been reading lately in EdTech:
The Death of the Digital Native In these four provocations, anthropologist Donna Lanclos argues that the notion of the “digital native” is bogus and disempowering, that pandering to student expectations can backfire, universities should be open by default, and our attitude to educational technology needs a rethink. Five Types of Quizzes That Deepen Engagement with Course Content a Faculty Focus article offering innovative ways to set quizzes. Open Source Math Software Competes in the Classroom William Stein is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington,and founder of the SageMath software project discusses the software’s advantages The Digital Campus: Tech Innovators 2016 Digital movers and shakers—nine projects using educational technology Want to share an article you enjoyed? Please post a link in the comments below. |