1. Developing electronic classroom response apps for
a wide variety of mobile devices.
Insights into the PINGO project
Michael Sievers, Wolfgang Reinhardt,
Dennis Kundisch, Philipp Herrmann
University of Paderborn (Germany)

2. Not Yet Another Classroom Response System...

3. What is Peer Instruction
• cooperative teaching-learning strategy
• similar to ask-the-audience lifeline in Who want’s to be a Millionaire?
• substantially enhanced
learning success
• several empirical and anecdotal
evidences (see our papers on
the topic)
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

4. n ot yet used
in very large Brief introduction lecture
(10 - 15 minutes)
new topic
g roups
repeat the voting
Multiple choice question
Students vote
correct answers correct answers correct answers
< 30% 30% - 80% > 80%
Peer discussion (2 -3 Short discussion about
Another version of the
mins): students try to remaining
introduction lecture
convince each other misconceptions
General Process of PI
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

5. PI in very large groups (300+ students)
1.High one-off expenditure
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

6. PI in very large groups (300+ students)
1.High one-off expenditure
2.Catalog of questions
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

7. PI in very large groups (300+ students)
1.High one-off expenditure
2.Catalog of questions
3.Clickers
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

8. PI in very large groups (300+ students)
1.High one-off expenditure
2.Catalog of questions
3.Clickers
4.Costs
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

9. PI in very large groups (300+ students)
1.High one-off expenditure
2.Catalog of questions
3.Clickers
4.Costs
5.Installation
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

10. PI in very large groups (300+ students)
1.High one-off expenditure
2.Catalog of questions
3.Clickers
4.Costs
5.Installation
6.Configuration
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

11. PI in very large groups (300+ students)
1.High one-off expenditure
2.Catalog of questions
3.Clickers
4.Costs
5.Installation
6.Configuration
7.Exclusive use
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

12. Goals & constraints of the PINGO development
• support as many mobile devices as possible
• support at least 5000 requests/sec in the backend
• push new questions to the mobile devices
• sync timers between backend and mobile devices
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

13. Support as many mobile devices as possible
• goal: Android 1.6 and Symbian S60 3rd edition
• no native applications (iOS, Android, Blackberry, Symbian ...)
• no multi-platform application (PhoneGap, Appcelerator Titanium ...)
• web-based application
• most devices and OS while minimizing development efforts
• powerful browsers capable of JavaScript, CSS, HTML
• no download needed, type in URL or scan QR code
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

14. Scalable backend architecture
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

15. Oddities of web-based applications
• JQuery mobile, Dojo mobile, Twitter Bootstrap not fully supported on legacy
devices
• missing CSS features
• no support for animated GIFs (spinner replacement)
• much less control over the device’s status
• change of power state cannot be interrupted or even handled
• existing Socket.IO connections regularly dropped
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

16. Let’s give it a try ...
http://pingo.upb.de/6837
What is the author with the most
publications in mLearn history?
A) Marcus Specht C) Claire Bradley
B) John Traxler D) Mike Sharples
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

17. PINGO’s answer to the identified issues
1.High one-off expenditure
2.Catalog of questions
3.Clickers
4.Costs
5.Installation
6.Configuration
7.Exclusive use
INGO: Peer Instruction for very large groups

18. PINGO is free to use by anyone
• PINGO introduction video http://youtu.be/aZC3NnUqZcs
• Peer Discussion tutorial video http://youtu.be/sMyqBg_z-1Y
• Sign up for PINGO at http://pingo.upb.de/users/sign_up
• no strings attached

19. wolfgang reinhardt university of paderborn
social media sna
twitter recommendations
awareness
research networks
bibliometrics
artefact-actor-networks
ginkgo
research 2.0
www.isitjustme.de www.ginkgosem.com
@wollepb @wollepb @wolfgang.reinhardt
@wollepb @wollepb @wolfgang.reinhardt
@wollepb @wollepb @wollepb