Learning Catalytics

What are your initial reactions to the learning catalytics tool?
I was impressed at how much real-time interaction can come from using learning catalytics. I really liked the reaction graph that allowed students to communicate when they were feeling lost. I must also admit that I wish the tutorial used better questions to demonstrate the utility of this tool. I imagine it's capable of more than this tutorial leads on.


What are the similarities and differences between traditional clickers and the learning catalytics tool?Both clickers and learning catalytics allow instructors to assess students and get results in a matter of seconds. This allows an instructor to provide feedback far quicker than a traditional pen and paper assessment. In both forms, this data can provide information about individual students which could result in targeted, specific feedback. Both tools could also be utilized for an early warning system and monitoring attendance. Learning catalytics seems to offer more flexibility in the types of questions an instructor can ask. As demonstrated by the tutorial, students can do more than type in a response, they can interact with the questions.



Would you consider using learning catalytics? How likely are you to use it in the future?
I could imagine myself using a learning catalytics tool to facilitate regular formative assessment. It seems like this tool would be useful in a large lecture course like A&P. Maybe this would be a way to execute reading quizzes. I would be interested to see how this technology evolves, perhaps allowing students to create their own visual models or participate in an educational game.