CHALLENGE

At Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Jim Mitroka is an associate professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences for the Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy. He noticed that his usual lecture methods did not result in enough engagement with students in his large, 75-person medicinal chemistry and pharmacology courses. He was also concerned about student participation, since only a few students typically answered in-class questions.

SOLUTION

Mitroka became aware of his university’s use of Turning Technologies’ student response systems, and proceeded to integrate them into his courses.

“I decided from the start that I would use TurningPoint for every class,” he said, referring to the interactive student response solution.

As the company’s technology advanced and changed, he discovered the best solutions for his environment. Students at the Gregory School of Pharmacy have tablets available to them. This gave him the chance to use the TurningPoint app, which allows students to respond to interactive polling questions from any web-enabled device.

“Getting students engaged is the problem that is solved by using TurningPoint student polling.”

Dr Jim Mitroka
Associate Professor
Palm Beach Atlantic University

Mitroka also had the flexibility to experiment with a variety of effective teaching techniques, including breaking up the monotony of lectures with student polling questions, using the essay question type to further his insight into student understanding of the material and implementing a flipped classroom approach.

As part of the flipped classroom model, he had his students watch a narrated PowerPoint® presentation outside of class. The students then took a quiz in class with TurningPoint student polling questions. About how student response systems have changed his teaching methods, he said, “Having TurningPoint has allowed me to implement the flipped class approach and it seems to be working out very well.”

RESULTS

Mitroka’s primary goal in using student response systems was to have remarkable student engagement throughout his courses. His success in getting students engaged, coupled with overwhelmingly positive student reactions, has only furthered his efforts to find innovative new ways to make class interesting with TurningPoint student polling solutions.

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