LectureTools

LectureTools is a web-based alternative to dedicated electronic voting systems (aka clickers) such as Turning Point which we use here at Loughborough. Developed by Dr Perry Samson, a Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Michigan, the service was acquired this year by Echo 360, the company behind our ReVIEW lecture capture service.

In many respects it is similar to Socrative and other online voting systems we’ve blogged about previously (see https://blog.lboro.ac.uk/elearning/?p=2462). For us, the particular attraction is that it’s gradually being integrated into the Echo 360 / ReVIEW lecture capture system which, over the course of time, will evolve into what the company call an ‘active learning platform’.

In addition, there is already a level of integration with Moodle and therefore Learn (as we call Moodle here at Loughborough). What this means in practice is that, as a module tutor, you can add ‘LectureTools’ as an activity on your module page creating a ‘bridge’ to your course on LectureTools.

During a lecture, students can access your presentation via this link, from whatever mobile device they happen to have with them – smartphone, tablet, phablet, netbook, laptop, Chromebook… you get the idea. Where you have a question slide, instead of responding via a clicker, they do it from the mobile device. There are two benefits to this: (1) you don’t have to get colleagues in Teaching Support to bring out 200 clickers; and (2) because the system is not just limited to keypresses, additional question types (such as drag ‘n’ drop) are possible.

Loughborough colleagues interested in trying out LectureTools this semester should get in touch with us via the usual channels. (PS – don’t create an account at lecturetools.com; you register via Learn.)