Understanding Lecturers' Perceptions and Motivations When Using Audience Response Systems in Their Teaching

Audience Response Systems (ARS) have been a regular feature in classroom teaching for many years.This study investigates perceptions of academics across five faculties from a modern, multidisciplinary UK university regarding their motivations for the use of ARS within the classroom, in comparison with their perception of the students' motivations.The findings of this study suggest that academics are skeptical about how their students receive the use of ARS but feel that it is important to include it within their teaching.The methodology for this study was quantitative using an online Google Form Questionnaire consisting of a Likert scale (1-5, 1 = Not at all Important to 5 = Extremely Important), which was sent to 191 users of Nearpod.The topics in the questionnaire covered the current use and perceived expectations of ARS and the lecturers' perceptions of their students' feelings towards the usefulness and value of using ARS in teaching sessions.The results overwhelmingly show that the respondents believed that ARS has an important role in modern classrooms, while academics were skeptical about how their students perceived the use of ARS.This suggests a potential disconnect between the motivations that lecturers have when using ARS and their perception of the value students give to the tools.