Gang, Thanks for the thoughts and responses. I actually asked Derek privately about right after I posted to the list, and this is his response (he OK'ed me to forward it here): > -----Original Message----- > From: Bruff, Derek O [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Friday, February 12, 2010 11:51 AM > To: Sweet, Michael S > Subject: RE: More clicker responses than students in the room > > Hi Michael, > > Yeah, this is a question I hear a lot, unfortunately. Assuming that > there's not a class next door using clickers on the same RF channel as > yours, then you probably have some cheating going on. > > Some clicker systems have a "pick a random student" feature that > selects one student at random from those that just voted on a question. > If your system has this feature, then you can use it every now and then > to "cold call" a student. ("Okay, the system has picked Jason Smith. > Jason, what was your answer to this question and why did you select > it?") If the system picks a student who isn't in the room, then you've > caught a cheater. And the threat alone of being caught this way might > do the trick. > > That does assume that Jason's friend Nick doesn't answer your cold > call, pretending to be Jason. However, that's a much more egregious > instance of cheating than simply brining Jason's clicker to class and > voting for him. > > Of course, if your clicker system doesn't have the "pick a random > student" feature, then you'll have to take another approach. I usually > answer this question by saying that this is a classroom management > issue, not a technological issue. When you're not able to spot clicker > cheaters yourself, you might enlist TAs to sit around the room and spot > them. You can also make clear to students that this kind of cheating > isn't allowed. A warning might reduce this kind of cheating, but > probably won't eliminate it. Some schools have included statements > about clicker cheating in their honor codes, which helps, since that > usually means the punishment for getting caught is greater, which > deters cheating. > > I often recommend that instructors worried about cheating use low- > stakes clicker questions so that even if some cheating happens, it > won't give students a significant advantage. Grading on effort, not > accuracy of answers, is one way to do this, as is making the clicker > quiz grades a relatively small component of students' overall class > grades. > > In a TBL context, however, the individual student quizzes are > relatively high stakes, right? One of the components of TBL is that > students earn some of their points on individual quizzes and some on > team quizzes. If the individual quizzes don't count for much, the > pedagogy doesn't work the same. > > Here's an idea that might work. What if you asked the following > clicker question: "What's the last digit of your social security > number?" Assuming you have a record of each student's social security > number, you could check the clicker responses to your records. If Nick > brought Jason's clicker to class and if Nick doesn't know Jason's > social security number (a safe assumption), then there's a 90% chance > he'll answer this question incorrectly. That will flag Jason as a > cheater. It won't flag Nick as a cheater, but perhaps you can get > Jason to turn on his conspirator. That works on "Law & Order" all the > time. > > What do you think? Might this work? And if social security numbers > wouldn't work in your context, perhaps there's some other student ID > number you could use. > > I'm going to post this on my blog and see if any of my readers have > additional ideas. > > Derek > > > > > -- > Derek Bruff, Ph.D. > Assistant Director, Center for Teaching > Senior Lecturer, Department of Mathematics > Vanderbilt University > www.vanderbilt.edu/cft/ > www.derekbruff.com/teachingwithcrs/ > twitter.com/derekbruff > > -----Original Message----- > From: Sweet, Michael S [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Friday, February 12, 2010 11:20 AM > To: Bruff, Derek O > Subject: More clicker responses than students in the room > > Hey Derek, > > We are using clickers for a large TBL class, and yesterday we had more > clicker responses than students in the room. I fear this means someone > in the room has an absent friend's clicker and is cheating for them. > > Have you run into this? > > Got any clever, low-hassle methods for identifying the culprits with > classes of 100-300? > > You literally "wrote the book" so any ideas are more than welcome! > > -M > > > > Michael Sweet, Ph.D. > Faculty Development Specialist > Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment (DIIA) > University of Texas Austin > MAI 2206 * (512) 232-1775 > > "Teaching is the profession that makes all other professions possible." > - Todd Witaker