(305)ANALYSING THE USE OF THE PERSONAL RESPONSES SYSTEM THROUGH ACTIVITY THEORY LENSES

摘要

The main purpose of using the Personal Response System (PRS)is to increase engagement,participation and understanding, particularly in terms of communication and interaction betweenstudents and lecturers. Many studies have aimed to evaluate the use of the PRS and havedemonstrated increased interactivity and communication. However, the learning activities of the PRSare not perceived as also encouraging learners to interact with different components of the PRS inorder to achieve his/her objectives. The reason behind this failure to view the various PRS activities asjoint learning is the unsystematic approach applied to its use. This study has selected Activity Theoryas a lens through which to holistically evaluate the use of the PRS as a learning tool in HigherEducation and Grounded Theory as the methodology by which to collect and analyse data. The studyuses a case study approach and King Khalid University in Saudi Arabia has been selected as theinstitution under study. The study has mainly relied on qualitative methods of data collection, usingGrounded Theory, which has included the instruments of interview, group interview and questionnaire.The findings of the study show evidence of improvements in learning, resulting from relationshipsbeing enhanced as a result of the various components of the PRS. This improvement allows thetransformation of objectives into outcomes.