Using Learning Catalytics in the Classroom

George Woodbury - College of the Sequoias

Learning Catalytics

Learning Catalytics is a powerful tool to make your classroom more engaging and interactive for students. Some refer to Learning Catalytics as "Clickers on Steroids" - because you can use so many types of questions besides multiple choice. And your students can participate through any device that is wi-fi enabled. If you use MyMathLab in your courses, you can use Learning Catalytics at no additional cost.

Here is a copy of my Power Point slides: Click here to access Power Point slides

Ways To Use Learning Catalytics In Class

Flipping the Classroom

I use Learning Catalytics in my statistics course as part of my Flipped Classroom model. I ask students conceptual questions, as well as problems calling for calculations.

I used Learning Catalytics to assess students on what they learned and to facilitate a class session that was active and engaging, encouraging collaborative learning and peer instruction.

If you want to read more about my approach to flipping my statistics classroom, check out this page.

If you'd like to see a copy of my Learning Catalytics class assignments for flipping a statistics class, reach out to me through the contact page on my website.

I found this book by Derek Bruff on teaching with classroom response systems very helpful and I highly recommend it.

Collecting Homework

I often assign a handful of written problems for homework and use Learning Catalytics to collect parts of those assignments at the very beginning of the next class. I like the fact that Learning Catalytics can grade the responses and transfer scores directly to the grade book in MyMathLab. Also, by collecting the homework in this fashion it encourages students to be on time, or even early (so they can "compare notes" with their classmates.

Exam Review

I often use Learning Catalytics to help my classes review for exams. This can even be done in an online class allowing students to work through problems at their convenience and preferred pacing. This is a great way to take the pulse of your students. What concepts do they have under control? What topics are still fuzzy? Are there any common misconceptions? How are their problems solving skills? It's like using Item Analysis, but in real-time.

Resources for Getting Started

Recorded Workshop on Pearson's Training Site

Learning Catalytics Guide

Questions or Comments?

You can reach me through My Contact Page or Follow Me on Twitter @georgewoodbury