Christine: Are you having them "click-in" one answer at a time.. i.e. everyone doing each answer at the same time, or using the "homework" (as it is called in the Response clicker system we use) feature, wherein they key in the 25-answers at their own pace, some doing it all at once, some doing it as they go through the iRAT. That is, we hand out paper copies of the iRAT... they are asked to mark their answers on the iRAT for their own use later in the tRAT process... and, to key in their iRAT answers in the clickers. I am sure there is some cheating going on in our process, too (i.e. wondering eyes as they check answers on the paper copy), but I cannot see how it relates to the clickers, in our case. Stopping use of the clickers would not be good, in our case at least: They (the software that tabulates the scores) really make it feasible to collect and analyze the data in real time.. to see what is going on, in terms of problem areas to address in mini-lectures, discussions. Gary Gary D. Lynne, Professor Department of Agricultural Economics and School of Natural Resources 103B Filley University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE 68583-0922 USA Website: http://www.agecon.unl.edu/facultystaff/directory/lynne.html Phone: 1-402-472-8281 Cell: 1-402-430-3100 This message and any attachments are confidential, may contain privileged information, and are intended solely for the recipient(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, or a person responsible for delivery to the named recipient, any review, distribution, dissemination or copying by you is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, you should notify the sender by return e-mail and delete the message from your computer system and destroy any copies in any form. "We are always only one failed generational transfer of knowledge away from darkest ignorance" (Herman Daly) "We do not just have our own interests. We share interests with others. Empathy ... exemplifies the implicit solidarity of human nature" (Robert Solomon) "Whoever frames the debate tends to win the debate" (George Lakoff) Christine Kuramoto <[log in to unmask]> Sent by: Team-Based Learning <[log in to unmask]> 08/19/2010 12:09 AM Please respond to [log in to unmask] To [log in to unmask] cc Subject clickers and cheating in TBL Hi Everyone, In my last TBL class evaluations by students, I had some disappointing responses to the item "Cheating is no problem in this class." Only 8 students agreed, 26 said they were unsure, and 37 said they disagreed. I was using clickers, so I got the responses right away and was able to ask each team to write suggestions for solving the cheating problem. I got several suggestions that said "stop using clickers." I had been using clickers on the iRATs for the first time in this course. I can only guess at why using clickers might have made it easier to cheat. I'm thinking that in the process of clicking in answers it may have been possible for students to send text messages via cell phones to other students without being noticed. Or maybe it was just easy to see what answers other students around them were clicking. Perhaps students in other countries would be more explicit about how the cheating was taking place, but here the students are only vague. Even those that are angry about the unfairness of cheating are unwilling to "rat out" their peers by telling me clearly how the cheating is taking place. I'm not sure if I should just stop using the clickers for the iRATs or not. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Christine -- ******* Christine Kuramoto, Assistant Professor: Medical English Kyushu University, Department of Medical Education Faculty of Medical Sciences 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8582 Japan Phone: (+81)92-642-6186 Fax: (+81)92-642-6188 E-mail: [log in to unmask]