Learning in Action with Learning Catalytics

Summary

The transcript describes experiences with using Learning Catalytics, an educational technology platform, in the classroom. It allows real-time student engagement and feedback to enhance learning. Teachers and students highlight benefits like promoting active participation, facilitating peer discussions, clarifying misunderstandings, easing shyness in asking questions, and assessing critical thinking.

Takeaways

• Learning Catalytics facilitates continuous assessment via different question types to gauge student understanding.
• The system enables students to discreetly indicate when they don't understand concepts so the teacher can clarify.
• It promotes peer discussions to explain ideas from different perspectives.
• Learning Catalytics increases student engagement and enjoyment with material.
• The technology integrates seamlessly across devices like phones and tablets.
• It helps shy students participate without publicly raising hands when confused.
• Real-time analytics allow teachers to adapt instruction based on class comprehension.
• Group work functionality lets students teach each other to improve understanding.
• Instructors can assess higher-order thinking skills beyond just facts and definitions.

Q & A

What types of devices can students use to interact with Learning Catalytics?

Students can use cell phones, tablets, Nooks, iPhones, computers, or any device that allows them to text responses.

How does the system help shy students participate more?

Shy students can discretely press the "I don't understand" button to indicate confusion instead of publicly raising their hand.

What analytics does Learning Catalytics provide to teachers?

Real-time analytics on student responses allow teachers to immediately adapt instruction when they see students are confused on a concept.

How can Learning Catalytics promote peer learning?

The group work function lets students enter breakout discussions to teach each other ideas from different perspectives.

What educational benefits does Learning Catalytics offer beyond traditional polling systems?

It facilitates assessment of higher-order thinking skills like critical analysis instead of just factual memorization.

What feedback have teachers provided after adopting Learning Catalytics?

Teachers found increased student engagement, enjoyment, participation, and understanding when using the interactive system.

Why would an instructor recommend Learning Catalytics?

An instructor would recommend it because it actively engages students and provides real-time comprehension analytics to enhance instruction.

How can Learning Catalytics improve learning outcomes?

The system clarifies misunderstandings instantly, enables peer learning, boosts engagement, and allows teachers to tailor instruction based on analytics.

What makes Learning Catalytics easy to use?

Its accessibility and integration across everyday devices like phones and tablets allow seamless user interaction.

What key benefits does Learning Catalytics offer students?

Students can indicate confusion instantly for clarification, engage actively in groups, enjoy learning more, and strengthen understanding of concepts.

Outlines

00:00

Overview of Learning Catalytics

Paragraph 1 provides an overview of Learning Catalytics, describing it as a classroom intelligence system that allows for individual responses, group discussions, and real-time feedback. It highlights key features like the "I don't understand" button and the ability for the instructor to gauge student understanding.

Benefits for Students

Paragraph 2 discusses benefits of Learning Catalytics for students, including convenience, engagement, and the ability to get help from classmates. Students like the system for not disrupting class and allowing them to learn from peers.

Increasing Class Comprehension

Paragraph 3 provides an example of how Learning Catalytics increased class comprehension from 19% to 89% through peer discussions after an initial low score on a question.

Promoting Student Engagement

Paragraph 4 emphasizes how Learning Catalytics promotes student engagement through discussions, feedback, and interactive questioning. The system keeps students involved with the material.

Instructor Goals and Outcomes

Paragraph 5 describes the instructor's goals for adopting Learning Catalytics, including better polling, challenging questions, and assessing critical thinking. The system enabled the instructor to push the edge of student understanding.

Keywords

💡Learning Catalytics

Learning Catalytics is an interactive student response and classroom intelligence system that instructors use to engage students and assess their understanding in real time. It allows various types of questions beyond multiple choice and enables student discussions. The video highlights how it improves student participation, provides instant feedback on comprehension to the instructor, and has more advanced analytics compared to traditional polling systems.

💡student engagement

A key benefit of Learning Catalytics is increased student engagement in the classroom. The system promotes active learning through real-time questions, discussions in small groups, and the ability for students to indicate when they are confused. This engages students more than traditional lectures.

💡instant feedback

With the "I don't understand" button in Learning Catalytics, instructors get instant feedback when students are confused. This allows the instructor to clarify concepts on the spot rather than waiting until exam performance suffers. This real-time assessment improves teaching and learning.

💡critical thinking

The instructor wanted to use Learning Catalytics to assess critical thinking skills with more sophisticated questions, not just simple multiple choice. This moves beyond shallow learning to deeper analysis and evaluation.

💡participation

Learning Catalytics increases student participation through features like small group discussions. Students take greater ownership of their learning and explain concepts to one another using their own language and examples.

💡convenience

For students, a benefit of Learning Catalytics is the convenience of using their own mobile devices to participate. This allows learning to happen across multiple contexts as students use their phones or tablets to continue their work.

💡implementation

From an instructor standpoint, implementing Learning Catalytics requires some adjustment but leads to better engagement and assessment. The video recommends it to enhance interactivity compared to traditional lectures and tests.

💡polling

The video contrasts Learning Catalytics with traditional polling systems that may only allow simple multiple choice questions. Learning Catalytics enables more sophisticated question types and discussions to take student assessment to the next level.

💡analytics

As a "classroom intelligence system," Learning Catalytics provides rich analytics to instructors on student comprehension. This is superior to basic polling data and allows better decision making.

💡mobility

By using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, Learning Catalytics enables learning experiences across contexts. Students appreciate the mobility and ability to participate in diverse settings.

Highlights

Learning Catalytics allows real-time assessment of student understanding through various interactive question types.

Students can indicate when they don't understand a concept, prompting the instructor to clarify the material.

Learning Catalytics facilitates peer discussions and collaborative learning.

The system provides insights into student thinking by capturing responses to critical thinking questions.

Instructors can adjust their teaching methods dynamically based on student feedback.

Learning Catalytics increases student engagement through participation, discussion, and peer learning.

The system integrates seamlessly with smartphones, enhancing accessibility and convenience.

Analytics on student responses support adaptation of instructional methods and materials.

Students highlight the ability to obtain explanations from peers using different approaches.

Real-time notifications indicate when students are struggling to follow the lecture.

Instructors emphasize critical thinking assessment over simple multiple choice questions.

The technology facilitates both individual and collaborative learning experiences.

Students describe the system as convenient, accessible, and engaging.

Instructors obtain granular, actionable insights into student comprehension.

The system enables student-driven clarification of concepts during class.

Transcripts

A few months ago I brought Learning Catalytics into my classroom and while it is

a personal response system. It's considerably more than that it really is

more like a classroom intelligence system.

For Learning Catalytics I use my cell phone and I also use my Nook.

I personally use a computer for Learning Catalytics.

For Learning Catalytics I use my iPhone 5.

There's several big differences between Learning Catalytics and other polling systems.

Clearly it will do

individual responses with multiple choice answers, but there's a wide variety of other question types.

I like to attend lecture because I know we're gonna be using the

Learning Catalytics

and I prefer that method versus say a pop test

during the class.

You can answer questions immediately after the teacher posts the question to you

I'd ask an instructor watching this, when do you know you've lost your

students?

Typically the answer for that is on the first or second exam when they tend to

bomb it.

For me I would know that and maybe 9:30 in the morning in the middle of a

lecture because I see little red line blip

showing that the students have sent me a message that they didn't understand what I just said

and I'll change my lecture

at that point to clarify.

Learning Catalytics has enhanced my learning

by the little button that you can push, "I don't understand this" and it helps because it

doesn't disrupt class by me raising my hand saying

I don't understand this, he just knows hey I need to talk over this more.

So having the chance to really know the moment I've

spoken that they are either with me or that I've lost them

is golden. I couldn't really get that from other system.

Classroom participation

really is another fun part of this though, once I've asked a question and assigned

students into groups

they sort of take over the classroom in a very good way.

They're having discussions about the topic at hand and often explaining

the ideas in ways that I would have never dreamed of.

Learning from other classmates helps me because they have

different ways they can remember things, they have different ways they've learned things,

We did have one time in Learning Catalytics where the classroom

percentage was a nineteen percent and I knew the answer fairly well

and when we broke out in the groups I was able to talk to my group with the right answer and

work them through how the process works and then go on to another group

even outside just the group that the teacher gave us and help them out

and it raised the percentage up to 89 percent.

What I've seen in the classroom with Learning Catalytics is my students truly are engaged with material

they're having a good time, they're discussing, they're letting me know whether

they understand the topic at hand.

I personally love Learning Catalytics. It's convenient for me

it it's all my phones so I always have it. It's always there with me so I can

do that studying.

I would definitely recommend Learning Catalytics to

any other instructors who's going to implement it into their class cause it's a gets your class engaged.

It's very easy to respond to questions if you can text you can respond.

When I adopted Learning Catalytics, what I really wanted to get out of it was a

better classroom polling system.

A system that let me do more than simple multiple choice and begin to push the

edge of student understanding. I wanted to challenge them. I wanted to

assess their critical thinking skills and Learning Catalytics really gives me that.