Voting on the move or ’Anywhere’ come to that.

Without a doubt, one of the most exciting things to come out of the 20 Century is our ability to create and communicate digital information, and loads of it. It’s not quite instant, but we are getting there and at a rapid pace. Which brings me onto instant feedback, not just in the classroom and lecture theatre, but in the Park, the industrial complex, the wilds of Dartmoor or just about anywhere.

So, what are we talking about, we’re talking about TurningPoint’s ‘ResponseCard Anywhere’. Some of you may already be familiar with Personal Response Systems’ (PRS) which we use in and around the University for student feedback and data gathering in the classroom. The PRS which is most commonly used within the University at present is ‘TurningPoint’.

So, let’s get down to business, what is ‘TurningPoint Anywhere’? TurningPoint the company have two votingsystems with similar names, they are ‘TurningPointAnywhere’ and ‘ResponseCard Anywhere’, the product we will be talking about is ‘ResponseCard Anywhere’.

ResponseCard Anywhere is a piece of hardware that you can use to gather student feedback, no matter where you are and without the need for software, a projector or even a computer.

Back in October 2011, Dr Jason Truscott and Sid White were given the go ahead to trial a PRS ‘ResponseCard Anywhere’. The aim of the trial was to see if the device lived up to expectations and if it could benefit the staff and student communities.

In testing the device, they had the good fortune to accompany staff and students on a field trip. Observations and findings from the field trip were reproduced in a subsequent report. In summary the device proved a success and subsequently a device was purchased.

There are a number of benefits in using this system, polling students on the fly, anonymous polling and the immediate display of results are just a few (more information is in the short report).

The Learning Technologies team now have a ‘ResponseCard Anywhere’ device which we can loan to staff. If you would like to know more about the benefits of using this device and perhaps have a go with it, then contact us.