Professor Elam

Weekend August 12 2012

There is a trend towards allowing students to answer questions as a group. The idea is to allow students to answer without the stigma of being the only one to participate particularly if the answer is wrong. 

I spent a couple of hours with the folks at 

Their system allows a student to log on to the internet with a phone, iPad, laptop, and answer pre loaded questions.. At this point regrettably, they do not have agreements with textbook companies. So the teacher cannot readily download test bank questions, a real bummer from my standpoint. But once loaded the questions can be used the next semester. 

http://www.viaresponse.com/

Now my question and I hope that I will get some response, what would you pay to participate in such a system?  Here is how it works.

You come to class. Various questions with multiple choice answers appear on the screen in class. You use your phone, iPad, laptop to answer. Then both you and I know how we are respectively doing. And it keeps the entire class engaged. 

At this point viaresponse wants $19.95 for one class to do this. I responded that was too high, they claim it is the cost of one delivered deluxe pizza. Well maybe, if they threw in a deluxe pizza coupon with it. My guess is that $9.95 for one class for one semester is about right. 

Your take?  Check out the website above before you answer.