gms | German Medical Science

Background and aim: Audience response (AR) systems are increasingly used in undergraduate medical education. However, high costs and complexity of conventional AR systems often limit their use. Here we present a novel AR system that platform independent, free-to-use and does not require hardware clickers or additional software.

Methods and results: OnlineTED.de was developed at Technische Universität München (TUM) based on PHP with a MySQL-database as server- and Javascript as client-side programming languages. Lecturer can create, manage question sets online and start polls in-class via any webbrowser at http://www.onlineted.de. Students can participate in the polls with any internet-enabled device (smartphones, tables-PCs or laptops). A survey conducted with undergraduate medical students and lectures at TUM showed above average evaluation results when compared with conventional AR systems using clickers.

Summary and Conclusions: OnlineTED.de is a novel web-based and platform independent AR system for higher education that was well received by students and lectures. As non-commerical alternative to conventional AR-systems it will likely help to foster interactive teaching in undergraduate medical education, in particular at institutions or countries with limited resources.