In the Oct. 8 Senate meeting, Speaker of the House Taylor Lawrence informed the Student Body Government of a pilot program for iClickers.
Thanks to the 100 iClickers that the Office of Community Wellness donated, Lawrence hopes to start the pilot program at the beginning of the Winter 2020 semester. Lawrence originally came up with the idea after seeing the successful programs at other universities.
“So, this was an idea that I actually got from the student body president and vice president over at Wayne State,” Lawrence said. “They just started a pilot program over there with 180 iClickers, and Michigan State University has a program with over 1,000 iClickers, keeping in mind that WSU has around 20,000 undergrads and MSU has about 40,000.”
An iClicker is an device used as a learning tool in the classroom to make responses between students and teachers easier and quicker by having a voting-type electronic response.
Lawrence wanted to initiate this project as a way to help students access a tool and necessity they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.
“I wanted to help mitigate some of the costs students have to incur at EMU,” Lawrence said. “The iClicker can be a great tool, however, it costs $60, and for many students, they will only need it for one semester because it is required for a general education course that is outside of their major.”
The Student Government had originally planned on purchasing 100 iClickers and donating them to Halle Library until Nicholas Pomante from the Office of Community Wellness donated 100 brand new iClickers after hearing about the project.
Lawrence said that, after having an understanding of how high the demand is, Student Government plans on expanding this project.
“We know that there is a large enough demand for iClickers that we should run out of the initial 100 no problem, but we really wanted to have a good understanding of the need here at EMU,” Lawrence said. “So, in mid-September a survey was sent out to faculty members at EMU through the Faculty Development Center. Long story short, we will use the results to determine how many clickers will be purchased.”
Lawrence said he applied for a grant from the Women in Philanthropy to expand this project because the ideas behind the project align with the group’s priorities.
“The grant I applied for is the Women in Philanthropy grant,” Lawrence said. “The Women in Philanthropy at EMU group supports projects that align with the mission and vision of Eastern Michigan University.”
