The Uselessness that is Course Clickers

By Kimberly “Charlie” Treloar |Staff Writer|

There is no denying that advancement in technology has changed the way we receive our education now.

In addition to paying for tuition and books, students now may have to purchase a clicker to be used in their courses.

At what point does the hemorrhaging of our wallets and bank accounts stop?

I believe that it is wrong to impose extra costs on students for the sake of participating in the latest technological advancements that don’t even work most of the time.

Currently, if a student requires a clicker for the winter quarter, he or she has to spend $25.50 for the clicker itself and then another $17.50 for the access code according to the CSUSB bookstore.

This adds up to $43 for one course so that your professor can take roll for a class that may have more than 150 students.

According to the CSUSB bookstore, eight classes this quarter with more than 150 students require a clicker and code to participate in.

That amounts to over $52,000 that students will spend extra just to be counted.

What happened to taking roll by passing around a pad of paper and a pen?

Some can say that this is the great benefit to the clickers, that attendance is done in a matter of seconds. However, if a pen a paper is passed around, it really is only consuming a few seconds of each individual’s time, worth the $43 I think.

The clicker, though it can be used for such things as quizzes and class questions, cannot fully guaruntee that the person who is getting credit for them is the one taking them.

This can be achieved when a professor requires photo identification or when students turn a quiz or exam in. It’s just a matter of them wanting to make that sort of effort to ensure the integrity of their classroom.

This past quarter I had to purchase a clicker and an access code for one of my communication studies courses.

Due to the website and the computer in the classroom having issues, we only used our clickers a few times.

It really ended up being a complete waste of time and money.

“I think that having to buy a clicker is a waste of time and money. As a full time college student, I don’t have the money to waste on a clicker when I could invest that money into a book for school, and the E-Instruction website a lot of times is down, which is inconvenient,” said one student.

Some professors will say that the whole class benefits from the gadget by it forcing the students to be involved and on their toes, ready to click away.

Seems reasonable, right? Wrong.

Students are still able to access the site and get the information they need without having to be present.

Heck, they can even have a fellow student do the clicking for them and it will still register them as present even when they are not.

Professors should see that sometimes what really counts is the information that they need to teach students, not any “cool” tool that they use.

With all the rising costs of being a college student any kind of financial assistance or break would be helpful.

The cost of a clicker, $43.

The cost of a pad of paper, $3.

CSUSB professors taking it easy on us and not requiring such materials, PRICELESS.