Abstract:

In higher education, emerging technologies have created opportunities for more flexible and easily accessible learning and assessing environments. Emerging technologies in education are newer technologies or technologies that, while now established, were once emerged. In the current study clicker mobile technology was observed as an emerging technology. Globally, the utility of clickers in higher education have been explored. The most beneficial aspect of clickers when used for assessment for learning was that it provides immediate feedback allowing students to measure their understanding of the concepts. Clickers have the potential to keep students motivated and engaged in classroom activities. Regarding this, clicker assessment is mostly effective when feedback is used to actively improve student learning as it allows students and lecturers to become responsible partners in learning.

Assessment is the basic integral part of teaching and learning as it constructs judgment about how students’ tasks meet appropriate standards. Assessments in higher education require reconsideration and transformation because of the substantial change in the fast-revolving global context. In fact, e-assessment provides quality feedback and objectivity in marking and it assists with large student numbers. Formative e-assessment has the potential to support substantial changes in the manner in which learning occurs. Formative-e-assessment requires on-demand assessments with immediate feedback, which directs the students’ cognitive development permitting them to progress at individual rates.

The problem in the current study was the large classes and to provide immediate feedback to students. In most cases it becomes problematic to provide quality feedback on assessments for concepts taught in class. In fact, this led to the low pass rate. The other challenge was the lack of lecturers’ mechanism to measure the gap in student learning. On the other hand, it became a challenge for the students to determine their own mistakes. Students did not know their progress and performance during the learning process. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether feedback on assessment using clicker emerging technology enhances learning. The study question was: To what extent feedback on assessments using clickers during class enhanced student learning? In order to answer the questions a mixed method was used. Participants were 345 students registered for Mathematics I and II at a study university of technology in South Africa.

This article reports on the feedback on assessment using clicker emerging technology to enhance learning and improve students’ performance. In order to do this, firstly, weekly clicker continuous assessments were conducted in order to establish the changes in students’ academic performance and to prepare them for assessment for learning. Secondly, we will describe how quality feedback on assessments using clicker emerging technology was applied to promote participation, engagement and improve students’ performance. Finally, a survey questionnaire was administered. Students’ perspectives and the impact of clickers in a mathematics course were also examined using the same questionnaire. The results showed that the effectiveness of feedback on assessments for learning with the application of a technology-engagement teaching strategy using clicker emerging technology enhances learning and improves academic performance among students.

Keywords:

Emerging technologies, clickers, assessment, e-assessment and feedback.