Students rent more than 300 iClickers through USAC program
Ruhi Patil, USAC Financial Supports commissioner, is in charge of the iClicker loan program, which rented out of about 300 iClickers for the quarter. (Austin Yu/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Amanda Wilcox
Oct. 2, 2015 2:34 a.m.
Students rented out more than 300 iClickers through an undergraduate student government program within the first hour they were available.
The iClicker loan program, run by the Undergraduate Students Association Council Financial Supports Commission and the UCLA Office of Instructional Development, allows students to borrow an iClicker for a quarter. Students often use iClickers to answer multiple-choice questions for participation points in lectures.
This quarter, most of the 350 clickers available were rented out within an hour, said Roger Brown, manager of Instructional Media Collections and Services of the OID, which manages the iClickers used for the program.
Students who do not rent iClickers can purchase new ones from the UCLA bookstore for about $50, or purchase used ones for lower prices.
Ruhi Patil, USAC Financial Supports commissioner, said the loan program intends to ease students’ financial burdens. She added she does not think students should have to purchase an iClicker if they will only need it for one or two classes.
To borrow a clicker through the program, students must reserve them online one day before the beginning of the quarter, and pick them up from Powell Library within two days. If they do not, the office will enter them back into the system and make them available to other students. Students who do not return their iClickers by the last day of finals week will be charged the cost of the iClicker.
Brown said the rental program began three years ago with about 250 clickers and has grown each year since, reaching the current total of 350.
Patil said the Financial Supports Commission recently bought 100 more iClickers with student fees, which cost about $5,000. The OID’s Instructional Improvement Grant spent about $10,000 to purchase the first 250 iClickers.
Brown added about 3,000 students use iClickers on campus every quarter.
Rachel Zhu, a second-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, said she borrowed an iClicker from the program because new iClickers are expensive and it is difficult to find students who are selling their used iClickers.
“(The reservation) system is pretty simple to use and straightforward,” she said.
Patil said she hopes to expand the program and obtain more iClickers for rental without using student fees, because the program only benefits about 350 students rather than the entire student body.
She added her office is looking for alternative funding sources and reaching out to various companies to obtain more iClickers.
