Understanding the effects of professors' pedagogical development with Clicker Assessment and Feedback technologies and the impact on students' engagement and learning in higher education

Clicker Assessment and Feedback (CAF) is an instructional assessment and feedback strategy that is incorporated with interactive technologies, often referred to as clickers. Several thousand colleges and universities across Europe and North America have adopted CAF as a strategy in their classrooms. This study has three major objectives. The first objective is to discuss the development of an instrument used to assess and investigate students' perceptions of CAF tools. The second is to examine the effects of university professors' CAF development on student perceptions of CAF. The third is to investigate the impact of professors' CAF methods on student learning and engagement. In this study the CAF project was initiated to enhance students' engagement in undergraduate courses by supporting CAF development to university professors at a large, publically-funded University. Professors (n = 74) and students (n = 5459) volunteered to participate over this four-semester long project. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to explore students' perceptions of CAF efficacy. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to explore the relationship between professors' CAF development, their use of CAF in formative or summative assessment and students' perceptions of CAF. The results demonstrate that 1) students perceive the use of CAF tools as having an impact on their engagement and learning, 2) increased CAF development by professors impact on students' perceptions of CAF, and 3) professors' use of CAF for formative assessment is more influential than summative assessment on students' perceptions of engagement and learning. This study suggests that CAF is most effective for student engagement and learning if it is supported by appropriate CAF development of professors and their subsequent formative use of CAF during teaching.

► Provides a short, valid and reliable instrument for assessing students' perception of using clickers.
► Principal Component Analysis demonstrates two distinctive components of using clickers: engagement and learning.
► A pedagogical development program for clickers had a positive impact on students' engagement and learning.
► Formative feedback with clickers had a more positive influence on students' engagement and learning.
►  A pedagogical development program for using clickers was critical for a successful implementation.