Keeping students engaged with Mentimeter

Video transcript

My name is Kai Renz, I’m a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt, Germany, and I’m using Mentimeter in my lectures.

What’s the biggest challenge in the classroom?

The biggest challenge is getting students to stay focused, to be attentive to what I do. So just talking for an hour and a half, that’s our standard lecture time, I find it’s really really difficult to get the points across.

How does Mentimeter help?

I use Mentimeter in almost every lecture I do, and I have it timed so after about 15 to 20 minutes I have at least one question. It helps students to stay focused and it helps to bring back the attention to what I say. It helps them to get out of that passive role where they are just leaning back and just say, “well, somebody else is talking to me” into the more active participation. It really helps learning, it helps to understand what I do.

It’s a really, really cool tool. Students love it, I get lots of feedback that course is much more fun having such an interaction. Mentimeter looks good to use, so yeah, I would definitely recommend it.

Which Mentimeter feature is your favorite?

I don’t really have a favorite, I use it all!