Teaching Innovations Sneak Preview of the Classroom Polling Game using the WWW.TradewindBusiness.com Professor Avi Seidmann Xerox Professor, IS/OM Area Chair Simon Business School University of Rochester Rochester, New York 1 Our Growing BA/MS/MBA Teaching Challenge •Classes tend to be mostly passive: • Learn statistics, Watch PPTs, listen to Professor, Other students talking… • The Engagement Challenge: • Increasing class size • General students’ tendency to ‘hide’ • Professors need a ‘finger on the pulse’ • Students lose interest during the session • There is no time to let everyone ‘talk’ in case discussions 2 The TradewindBusiness.com Free Platform • Developed over the past ten years • In use by over 100 leading Universities and a few hundred professors world wide • Prize Winning Technological system: • Cloud based • Highly interactive • Advanced graphics and quantitative visualization • Model based games (making it hard to ‘over smart’) • Competitive performance by all students with round/total ranking • All games are designed to be using during a one class session of 60 to 90 min 3 4 The TradewindBusiness.com Free Platform • Finance/Fintech Stock Trading Game • Information Systems Two Sided Platform Game, Competitive Pricing Game, Fishing Game • Operations Management Beer Game, News Vendor Game • Economics/Strategy Fishing Game, Competitive Pricing Game, Two Sided Platform Game 5 What Is a CRS? (“classroom response system”) • A teacher poses a multiple-choice question to his or her students via an overhead or computer projector • Each student submits an answer to the question using a handheld transmitter (a “clicker”) that beams a radio-frequency signal to a receiver attached to the teacher’s computer • Software on the teacher’s computer collects the students’ answers and produces a bar chart showing how many students chose each of the answer choices • The teacher makes “on the fly” instructional choices in response to the bar chart by, for example, leading students in a discussion of the merits of each answer choice or asking students to discuss the question in small groups 6 Value of “clickers” • Students can use this feedback to monitor their own learning, and instructors can use it to change how they manage class “on the fly” in response to student learning needs • May allow students to register their confidence level (high, medium, or low) along with their answer, providing more detailed feedback to the instructor • Use: Attendance:, Summative Assessment:, Formative Assessment:, Homework Retention:, Discussion Warm-Up:, Contingent Teaching:, Peer Instruction:, “Choose Your Own Adventure” Classes:, Question-Driven Instruction:, and much more…. 7 Limitations of “clickers” • Need a dedicated HW (clickers distribution) • Students tend to forget to bring them • Need an interface with PPT (API Install) • Cost • Academic misconduct • Will not allow for “Data Inversion” on the flight: • Which students gave which answer? • Open text answers are harder to administer 8 The Polling Game (In Beta Testing) • Deliver an immediate & effective learning power • Facilitate a clear live analytical display of all students’ viewpoints • Enabling a deeper entre’ into the class intellectual grasp and thought process • Better than by having just an oral discussion (when only ‘the same select few’ typically participate) 9 The Polling Game (In Beta Testing) • A general purpose ‘classroom’ polling system: • Professor Can Design the following questions types: • Binary such as Yes/No • Numeric Value • Multiple Choice (Respond to Text and/or Images) [with optional randomization, and images] • (2 to many...) • Multiple-select – pick all that apply • Ordinal Rank of responses on display • Open Text Box, with automated text analyses using word cloud 10 The Polling Game (In Beta Testing) • A superior solution to ‘clickers’ and similar response tech’ • Web based, no install is needed • Professors get all answers recorded, Excel Export • In multiple choice questions: • By clicking on a section of a results bar or pie-chart, the professor can show which student gave which answer (=Accountable Ownership!) • Provide analytics on students’ participation etc’ (per class answers, or class after class) • And, more to come… 11 The White-Board Game (In Beta Testing) • Designed to make sure that: • All the students are accountable for going over the material and practicing for class • Students come prepared to class, read the case material, text book, etc’ • All (including shy) students must participate, with no free rides in the classroom • Powerful also for distance learning • The thought processes of all students at each class epoch are exposed • Highlights the “spectrum of answers” to open end questions • Students can ‘Structurally’ interact with others’ responses, and build upon Essay to use with minimal Professor’s preparation No need to use any API, Power Point interface, etc’ 12 My Active list of Questions 13 “Written Response” Question Type 14 15 “Image Response” Question Type 16 Students Can ‘Enlarge’ the Image 17 Response Analytics 18 Preparing an “Image Response” Question 19 “Randomization” In Action 20 Presenting Results with the Original Image Question 21 The “White Board” System 22 White Board Responses after Round One Professor View 23 Word Cloud of all the responses at the White Board 24 White Board Responses after Round One Students’ View (Selected responses only) Professor. Student 1 (No Name) Student 2 Student 3 25 Round Two: White Board New Comments at Round Two Students’ View (Selected responses only) 26 Professor View after Round Two 27 Interactive Learning Using TradewindBusiness • Conclusions: • Students love working with Gamification: • We are building upon a powerful and reliable infrastructure • Polling Questions designed for facilitating extensive participation • Whiteboard creates a broad-base (structured) discussion • A lot of flexibility with 100% performance recording and live feedback at various ‘exposure’ level • A power engagement tool for Hybrid/Online teaching • Expect even more/better features to come soon 28 Visual and Analytical Many Thanks Gamification… Increase •Please contact me for: engagement, •Didactic Material, Tech teaching Support, etc’ effectiveness, and Avi academic outcomes 29 Boston University's Digital Learning Journey – Chris Dellarocas, Boston University • BU 30% of International Students • Started at 2002 with Distance teaching • 2012: MOOC shows up, Joined edX • 2016: Established Associate Provost of Digital Learning and Innovation • Incubation of Innovative Projects • Think about High ED in 2040? • Operation/Transformation/Innovation (Seed Grants, Pilots, ’Marketing’) • Use Zoom and Adobe Cloud 30 Boston University's Digital Learning Journey – Chris Dellarocas, Boston University • Office with staff of 25 persons • Foster Innovation • Incubators for experiments • Distance Education • All Universities are in constant change phase now • How to innovate at a level ‘above’ the classroom? • The Digital Education Incubator (DEI) • Annual call for proposals: weak faculty response… • Highlights: Micromasters; Life Learning Portals (with Public Health; Education); Advising and Mentoring Projects; Digital infrastructure; • Need Schools’ Leadership Support 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46.