USAC, OID make clickers available for loan in Powell Library
By Annie Lu
Sept. 27, 2013 1:28 a.m.
Students who need i>clickers for their classes can now rent them for free from Powell Library.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council Financial Supports Commission and the Office of Instructional Development worked together to open the i>clicker loan library on Wednesday.
Lauren Rogers, the USAC Financial Supports commissioner who started the project, said she thinks purchasing clickers is a problem for UCLA students who cannot afford all the materials they need for school. The program allows about 200 students to rent i>clickers, which normally costs around $45. Students use clickers as an electronic remote to answer questions in class and the professor can collect and record students’ answers immediately.
“People were always asking ‘Who has a clicker?’” Rogers said. “Affordable educational material is a problem at UCLA, so we want to make the program free for students.”
Miguel Ramirez, a first-year mathematics/economics student, has already loaned an i>clicker from the library. “It’s not financially feasible for me to take out a loan right now to pay for my school expenses,” Ramirez said. “I think this is a good program and there should be more resources like this on campus.”
The program costs $10,000 and was funded by the Instructional Improvement Grant from the Office of Instructional Development.
The Office of Instructional Development chose to fund i>clickers because they are the most commonly used clickers on the UCLA campus, said Michelle Lew, the Director of Technology at the Office of Instructional Development, who worked with the Financial Supports Commission on the project.
“UCLA does not have an official clicker, and one of the things that keeps faculty from using i>clicker is that it is expensive,” said Lew.
Rogers said that borrowing an i>clicker is similar to borrowing a laptop from the CLICC lab, but on a quarterly basis and through an online process.
“We hope that by providing this resource on campus, students won’t have to worry about purchasing i>clickers and can save money in the long run,” said Melanie Goldfiner, Chief of Staff at the USAC Financial Supports Commission who worked with Rogers on the i>clicker loan project.
To borrow an i>clicker, students first need to verify that they are enrolled in a class that requires an i>clicker by logging onto their myUCLA account through the OID website.
After registration is completed, students can pick up their i>clickers from the media lab on the second floor of Powell Library.
