This fall, Hopkins has begun charging students for enrollment codes necessary for eInstruction’s Classroom Performance System (CPS), also known simply as “clickers.”
In the past, Hopkins has provided students with free enrollment codes, which have been prominently used in many classes at the university.
Recently however, the University has begun charging either $10 per semester or $35 for a lifetime subscription code for enrollment with the CPS units.
The recent change has caused debate among the student body.
Steven David, Vice Dean for Undergraduate Education and faculty member in the Department of Political Science, said that, “My understanding is that the university wanted to direct costs to the students who most benefited from the device. . . the sense that I got is that the university saw it as similar to having someone purchase a book for a class. . . that it was something for the class that helped the students better understand what the class was about.”
Sophomore Katherine Weiling Tan started an “event” on Facebook in protest titled “Don’t pay for CPS enrollment codes!” that currently has nearly 200 people “attending”.
The Facebook group calls students to action, saying “If everyone emails their professors AND the Dean, we would be able to get our voice out to them: We do NOT want to pay $35 for enrollment codes, which should have been free in the first place.”
“I started the group on Facebook mainly because I am sure that most, if not all, students affected by the change are unhappy and would want to do something,” Tan said.
“So I’m kinda just getting voices together.”
Tan hopes to bring the distaste of the students to the attention of the deans.
“My goals right now are mainly to raise awareness among the Deans, getting students together, with SGA as a platform, forming a coalition saying that students are against this change,” she said. “Because since the school wants the CPS system as part of the curriculum, they should pay the cost and not direct it to students. If the school can start charging us $35, they would soon be able to charge us even more. It’s a slippery slope — they see that we are fine being charged, so that empowers them to keep on doing it.”
Student opinions on the issue varied significantly, from people who believed it was unfair to those who believed it didn’t really matter at all.
“Frankly I feel like people have blown it way out of proportion. Our tuition increases by huge sums every year and yet we’re riled up about having to pay 35 dollars for a lifetime membership to CPS,” said sophomore John Jiao.
Sophomore Andi Shau said part of the backlash is from the lack of notice given about the fees. Also, Shau feels that the clickers are often not fully utilized in most classes, and the codes therefore are a waste.
“It’s frustrating because they didn’t really explain it very well. We didn’t really receive any warning, and on top of that, I think a lot of people are really confused about how much they need to pay per semester or for the lifetime,” said Shau. “I think people are really unhappy that we’re suddenly being charged for this, especially considering how much we pay for the clickers . . . which in most classes are just a glorified and more advanced way of taking attendance.”
Shau also commented on the clicker’s reliability, saying that it accounts for another reason as to why the codes are superfluous. In the end though, the fees have to be paid to use the devices
“Sometimes they don’t even work . . . In the end, though, I’m just resigned to having to pay for the codes, cause I don’t really think it’s gonna change. Whatever entity is in charge of the codes just wants to make more money. Yet another entry in the never-ending list of college expenditures.”
XiXi Xu, a sophomore, on the other hand, thinks the anger over the fees is pointless because most people have already swallowed the $35 lifetime membership fee.
“What’s the point . . . half of people on campus have already bought the lifelong one . . . I think a lot of people don’t care anymore,” said Xu.
According to Candice Dalrymple, Associate Dean of University Libraries and Director of the Center for Educational Resources, this fall over 19 faculty members are using the clicker system, “impacting over 2,500 students.”
Describing the long history of the use of the CPS at Hopkins, Dalrymple said, “The idea was to enable more interactivity between students and faculty, especially in large lecture courses. In the beginning, the pilot was small so we could understand the system’s impact on learning before it expanded to many courses.
“To focus the pilot on education, rather than on administrative issues like fees for registration codes, the Dean’s Office of the Krieger School, where all clicker courses were offered in the pilot phase, underwrote the fees for each student’s code . . . The School never purchased the actual units used by students; it only underwrote the registration codes that permit the system to track student responses accurately and securely”
Describing the reasons for the sudden increase in fees, Dalrymple said, “With clicker use spreading fast, the cost of the registration codes was becoming significant. And because not all students are enrolled in clicker-enhanced courses, it is not appropriate for the Dean’s Office to underwrite clicker registration codes for only part of the student population. It’s an equity issue — the Dean’s Office would not be justified in underwriting the cost of some students’ textbooks, for example, but not others.
“No one wants to see increases in education fees, but digital resources are enriching learning in nearly all disciplines. The type of fee required for clicker use is comparable to fees for online resources associated with many of the textbooks selected for JHU courses. Online resources require constant updating, and separate fees make resources like this possible.”
Regarding the future of CPS fees at Hopkins, “As far as I know, however, the transition to student support of their own registration codes is permanent,” Dalrymple said.
