IGI Global Audience Response Systems in Higher Education: Applications and Cases

As technology progresses, new systems emerge to assist educators in preparing and managing courses. Audience response systems (ARS) are now used to facilitate greater interaction with participants engaged in a variety of group activities by allowing participants to express views in complete anonymity. These views are then grouped together to help support summative and formative activities with groups ranging in size from five members to as many as several hundred. The data can be used to help the facilitator adjust the pace of teaching to match the requirements of the learners, gauge understanding, or trigger discussion and debate. ""Audience Response Systems in Higher Education: Applications and Cases"" reveals some of the history behind these systems, explores current theory and practice, and indicates where technology may move in the future. Cases are used to present the work of educators in a wide range of subject areas, and with differing levels of experience with these systems. About the Author David A Banks is a lecturer in information systems at the University of South Australia. He has taught in the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. His first career was with British Telecom in the UK, where he dealt with the first-line maintenance of business data networks, broadcast television networks and video conferencing systems. He holds a Master's Degree of Philosophy from the University of Leeds, UK, and has presented a number of radio programs, produced over 30 journal papers and book chapters, has co-authored a text-book, and has presented papers at international peer-reviewed conferences. He serves on the editorial review boards of three journals.