The idea is to exploit the fact that nearly all students now have a smartphone, and  some of them keep using it even during lectures. This year I decided not to ask students to switch off their mobiles; instead, I’ll ask them to use it to interact with me.

The motivation is that sometimes it may be difficult to grasp the sentiment of a class, especially if there are more than 20 students. With this tool (developed by Lalith Kaushik and I) I can prepare questions in advance, or  even during the lecture as the process only takes a few seconds.

Students can answer multiple-choice questions from their mobile phone using a short code (that can also be shared using facebook and twitter. BIS4610 students: please follow https://twitter.com/bis4610). The answer page is designed specifically to be accessed from a mobile device (and indeed it looks a bit strange on a standard PC)

The tool can be used to assess students’ comprehension of a topic (e.g. by asking “what is the square root of 16?”), but it can also be used to obtain feedback about delivery (“The pace of the lecture is: too slow / too fast / about right), and suggestions for future sessions (“What would you like to do next week? Revision / Mock exam / Practical session), etc.