This article engages with the unsettled question of whether student response systems increase engagement in the classroom. The reported study used a multi-classroom, multi-disciplinary pilot deployment of the app-based student engagement platform Nearpod to test whether greater use of the technology yields greater student engagement. The study…

A key goal of university bilingual science courses is to enrich undergraduates' bilingual scientific literacy (BSL). However, very little is known about how to foster BSL. This study aimed to provide research evidence to explore the possibility that BSL can be promoted by using bilingual written argumentation when Socrative® is treated as an…

Student response systems (SRS) have been used to provide teachers with immediate feedback on learners' performance to understand their weaknesses and strengths. This exploratory study is aimed at focusing on both distractive and facilitative aspects of using SRS in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes to assess learners' understanding of…

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact, and students' and teachers' perceptions, of using smartphones as clickers during formal lectures. This was an observational study based on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews. Forty French dental students received conventional lectures, and 40 additionally used the Socrative®…

The acceptance of different technologies in different classroom settings has been addressed in the current study. Integrating alignment theory with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study investigates the predictive differences between the use and adoption of four technologies. The technologies were used in Islamic study classrooms for…

This study compared the performance of two audience response systems (ARSs) without students requiring smartphone technology or Internet access during problem-based learning (PBL) activities. Clicker handsets linked to a radio frequency (RF) receiver and paper voting cards, known as Plickers, which display a QR code (two-dimensional barcode) that…

Socrative is an online platform that allows a teacher to put questions to students through an app on their smart phone or tablet. In existence since 2011, its use is now quite common in university teaching. But is Socrative any good? This article reviews the literature on the device and discusses my research on the use of the app, the first…

Flow is a state of total absorption and concentration in an activity that is desirable for students, as it enhances the learning experience. Due to the importance of flow for learning, this research investigates the influence of three flow preconditions--namely balance of skill and challenge, feedback and goal clarity--on students' flow,…

This paper explores the benefits and drawbacks of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) to engage undergraduate students in geography modules at Newcastle University. I consider the efficacy of "student response systems" (hereafter SRS, also known as audience response systems, clickers or personal response systems) in large lectures by…

The affordances and pedagogical benefits of technology in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classrooms are widely acknowledged. One potential use of technology is in eliciting and managing students' responses, which is an area where EAP/ESP teachers often report difficulties. Traditionally, teachers…

The purpose of this article is not to provide an exhaustive literature review of learning with mobile devices, but rather offer an overview of learning with mobile devices that provides context for this special issue and its manuscripts. Methodologically, we placed more emphases on experimental or quasiexperimental design when possible, as we felt…

Since the birth of clickers at Pennsylvania State University, there have been numerous arguments on its effectiveness. This study, aiming to review use of clickers in education, examined literature over around a decade on use of clickers, involving benefits and defects of use of clickers, peer discussion, use of clickers in learning, teaching and…

Personal response systems, such as clickers, have been widely used to improve the effectiveness of teaching in various classroom settings. Although hand-held clicker response systems have been the subject of multiple prior studies, few studies have focused on the use of cell phone-based personal response system (CPPRS) specifically. This study…

The effect of the implementation of student response systems (SRSs) in teaching on the critical thinking (CT) of young students was investigated. The study benefited from a quasi-experimental design and a pretest/posttest set-up. Subjects consisted of 156 K-8 students in Tehran during 2016-2017, selected through a multistage cluster sampling, and…

Student Response Systems (SRS) can provide effective, immediate, and efficient feedback to students, particularly when undertaking formative assessment. Coupled with active learning approaches, the use of such systems can be beneficial for English language learners by providing opportunities for increased engagement with content and reflection on…