{"id":2247,"date":"2022-02-04T12:02:54","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T12:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/?p=2247"},"modified":"2022-02-04T15:39:14","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T15:39:14","slug":"using-mentimeter-to-support-learning-and-engagement-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/itl\/2022\/02\/04\/using-mentimeter-to-support-learning-and-engagement-in-the-classroom\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Mentimeter to support learning and engagement in the classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"HeadshotDawn Holmes<\/span> is a Lecturer in <\/span>Marketing<\/span> working in <\/span>the <\/span>Alliance Manchester Business School. Academia is a second <\/span>career for Dawn, who <\/span>previously <\/span>spent 30 years as a marketing practitioner. Since discovering a love of teaching, she <\/span>has been awarded<\/span> a teaching bursary and is regularly recognised for teaching excellence. <\/span>She has a strong focus on student <\/span>participation<\/span> and <\/span>finding ways to illustrate points through activities and engagement.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been using the free online polling platform Mentimeter<\/a> (Menti) during live teaching sessions (in campus-based, online and dual delivery settings) to obtain input from the class. The students seem to love it \u2013 participation in the activities is always high \u2013 and it looks great too. Basically you set up a Menti presentation (selecting the format you want for your purpose) and then students access it online using a code. It\u2019s really well suited to mobiles, so most students join the polls on their phones using a QR code that I put on screen for easy access.<\/p>\n

There are some limitations and caveats, but first let\u2019s focus on the positive, and start with some examples of things that worked well. (It\u2019s important to stress here that the use of the software is only one element \u2013 it\u2019s the creative use of the information generated to underscore learning points that gives this technique its real power).<\/p>\n

Using Menti for polls<\/b><\/h4>\n

Menti generates instant poll results – for one course, I used it when the students were forming groups for coursework to investigate the distribution of Belbin team roles in the class. Following a discussion of roles, they simply entered their preferred and least preferred style.<\/p>\n

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The results showed that this particular seminar group had very few completer-finishers and few monitor-evaluators, and these were the least preferred roles for about half of the class. That allowed us to flag up issues groups might have with finishing their group projects and prompted a discussion of mitigating tactics.<\/p>\n

Using Menti to gather opinions<\/b><\/h4>\n

Menti also generates quick word clouds. Submissions are anonymous, so you can get some really honest feedback.\u00a0 I asked one class for reasons that they went shopping and had the following results:<\/p>\n

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What I love about this is that it captures so many diverse motivations, that sparked a lively discussion about retail design and how shops can support or encourage these different behaviours. I also liked the honesty of the contributions and whilst I\u2019m fairly sure some of the class went shopping for dating and fun, I\u2019m not sure any of them really went pickpocketing \u2013 but who knows!<\/p>\n

And if wordclouds aren\u2019t your thing, then Menti can also present free text information as a \u2018text wall\u2019, where the boxes scroll up the screen like a twitter feed:<\/p>\n

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I used this particular poll in the first lecture, to get a feel for the level of understanding and awareness of the topic, and it helped me to signpost to some of the things we would be covering during the course.<\/p>\n

Using Menti to explain concepts<\/b><\/h4>\n

The final example I want to share uses Menti to demonstrate and explain concepts. I was struggling to find a way to illustrate the difference between brand recall and brand recognition, so I got the students to map out their perceptions of ten brands \u2013 how well did they recognise the brand and how much did they associate the brand with mobile phones?<\/p>\n

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Again, it was surprisingly quick to get results and facilitated some interesting discussions \u2013 importantly, the discussions were focused on their own understanding of the brands, not my interpretation of the market. It\u2019s easy to see here that Apple and Samsung are well known and tightly associated with phones \u2013 but Xiomi much less so.<\/p>\n

The insightful thing is to demonstrate the range of answers \u2013 so hovering over the spot for Apple shows that almost all the answers were in the same area:<\/p>\n

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Doing the same for Xiomi showed a very different distribution of answers \u2013 with a large cluster not recognising the brand or associating it with phones, and a second group who recognised the brand but who didn\u2019t agree on how strongly it was associated with phones:<\/p>\n

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Xiomi is one of the world\u2019s biggest mobile phone brands, but it is predominantly sold in Asia \u2013 this led to an interesting discussion on perspectives and internationalisation that I don\u2019t think would have come about without this exercise.<\/p>\n

The combination of an easy to use, good looking application with some creative development of learning points based on the output seems to be a winner in the classroom. It allows students in the room and online to participate in the same discussion and encourages participation from those who might not otherwise speak up in class.<\/p>\n

As promised\u2026. a note on limitations and caveats<\/b><\/p>\n