The Effect of Mentimeter Application on Enhancing Students’

Communication Skills through Environments Issues

Nuraini Sirajudin, Said Hasan

Biologi Education Study Program, Universitas Khairun, Ternate, Indonesia

Keywords: Mentimeter, Communication, Environments issues

Abstract: Teacher-centered learning is common problem found in teaching and learning activities in the classroom.

Students become listeners than learners. Therefore, learning activities require a media that can enhance

communication interactions between students and lecturer. Communication is an integral part of the

reasoning process both when working and studying both individually and in groups. Good communication

in the class expected to increase knowledge of students and know what students understand. The

communication that will be developed in this study is written communication. Written communication is not

a simple thing. Writers and readers have their own perception toward what the issues to be discussed and

will affect the construction and interpretation of the writer. One of media which be able to be used in

teaching and learning is Mentimeter. The Mentimeter is an interaction media that can be used to have

students actively participating in class. It allows students to anonymously their opinions on the questions

that lecture can prepare in advance. This allows lecture to check how students think about a subject or if

they have understood a lecturer explanation. The results of the study indicate that students are very active in

participating in learning activities. There is increasing of students’ communication skills. Therefore, the use

of mentimeter in learning is very good for enhancing students’ communication skills.

1 INTRODUCTION

Large classes are an alternative learning approach

that is commonly applied to various institutions of

higher education. The reasons for using this

approach vary from the limited lecture room, the

effectiveness of education costs, and efficiency in

learning activities. Therefore, it is certain that this

approach may not be replaced in the near future.

Some students may prefer large classes because in

large classes than small classes. In large classes,

students will more meet and make friends with other

students compared to small classes. One problem in

the large class was most students easily bored and

less actively participate in learning activities

(Hassanin et al., 2016). As a result, there are many

criticisms of this approach, especially in terms of

learning that is still lecturers-centered rather than

student-centered. Communication only occurs in the

one direction, if there are students who asked,

mostly just a few of all student. Students play more

roles as listeners than learners.

Communication in learning activities is very

important for students. Communication is an integral

part of the reasoning process of students, both when

working or studying, both individually and in

groups(Brodie, 2010). When studying individually,

students will organize their thinking skills through

communication. In addition, students would be

prosecuted for communicating their thinking skills

in solving problem in a coherent and clear to friends

using good language to indicate the ideas when

studying in groups.

The development of science and technology in

this century has shifted the educational paradigm

from traditional learning methods to active learning

methods and student-centered. Students are faced

with a variety of choices in learning, from learning

by digital technology, learning with experimental

methods, learning by means of active interaction,

and various other learning models related to the use

of technology. The pressure to use technology,

especially those related to active learning in class

activities, is felt to be increasing at this time. Some

studies show that learning is designed so students

can play an active role in learning activities have

increased the absorption of learning materials and

increase motivation to learn in the classroom.

218

Sirajudin, N. and Hasan, S.

The Effect of Mentimeter Application on Enhancing Studentsâ

Z Communication Skills through Environments Issues.

DOI: 10.5220/0008899602180222

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2018), pages 218-222

ISBN: 978-989-758-439-8

The existence of large class problem, lack of

communication, and a shift in the educational

paradigm need to be found in a breakthrough. The

solution is to solve the problem of the facts on the

learning activities. One alternative that can be used

to solve this problem is the use of learning media

that can facilitate students to communicate in large

classes. The media is Mentimeter. Mentimeter is one

of audience response system (ARS) that refers to a

number of similar names, such as audience polling

systems, classroom feedback systems, interactive

voting systems, student response systems, and

personal response stations (Kastner, no date).

Mentimeter allow students to communicate their

opinions through an android phone, tablet, laptop or

personal computer. Students can communicate their

opinions and ideas through writing. Therefore, good

language is very necessary in this written

communication. The use of good language can

deliver good ideas, namely ideas that can be

understood by both students who convey and

lecturers who will capture the ideas or opinions of

students. Language as a communication tool should

be used properly to deliver learning material.

Students can convey various important information

in a problem, discuss the strategies needed in

conducting an investigation, and conclude the

solution to the problem.

The effective way to improve communication is

through writing because formally the use of a

language can be easily implemented by writing

(Ahmad, Salim and Zainuddin, 2008). Written

communication helps students become active

students and improve their academic achievement

because students use language to facilitate their

understanding and writing provides students the

opportunity to communicate what they know and do

not know (Kostos and Shin, 2010).

2 METHODS

The research method used is a quasi-experimental.

The main difference of this study with true

experimental research lies in placing individuals into

groups. In experimental studies, individuals were

chosen randomly to minimize bias. If individual

selection is perceived as impossible or impractical,

quasi-experimental research is the right choice.

Because the quasi-experimental design does not

provide full control, it is very important for

researchers to pay attention to factors that affect

internal and external validity in interpret the results

of his research.

The variables in this study consist of independent

variables namely ARS (Mentimeter) and the

dependent variable is critical thinking. The quasi-

experimental design used in this study is Posttest-

Only Design with None Equivalent Groups as shown

below.

NR X O

NR O

Note:

= O

Nonrandom (Not

Random)

ARS

(Mentimeter)

Communication

Ability Test

The dashed line between two sample classes,

namely the experimental class and the control class

indicates that the two classes are not formed by

randomly placing individuals or research subjects

into sample classes (Suratno, Ardiana and Tonra,

2018). The research subjects were eighty-two 3

semester pre-service biology teacher from two full

classers. Students who are subject to the

experimental class are taught with ARS

(Mentimeter) while students who are used as the

research subject in the control class are taught

conventionally. At the end of the learning activities,

students in both sample classes were given a final

test (O

= O

), which is a test to measure their

communication skills.

Written communication is not as simple as just

conveying what the author thinks and then

conveying it to the reader's mind. Writers and

readers have their own perception toward what the

issues to be discussed and will affect the

construction and interpretation of the writings

interpretation (Morgan, Watson and Tikly, 2004).

Students' communication skills through writing must

be trained regularly. For this reason, there is a need

for a series of activities that support the progress of

the exercise through this study. The steps of learning

activities using ARS in this study are as follows:

1. Lecturers ask questions using the Mentimeter

application.

2. Students answer questions individually through

the menti.com website

3. After the students' initial answers are

displayed, students are grouped into several

small groups to discuss the correct concepts

and answers.

The Effect of Mentimeter Application on Enhancing Studentsâ

Z Communication Skills through Environments Issues

219

4. Students are asked to enter the corrected

answers through the menti.com website

5. The correct answer is displayed by the lecturer.

Lecturers can also explain the rationalization of

the correct answers so as to reduce students'

misconception (Moreno, Bremner and

Emerson, 2010).

3 RESULTS

This study of communication skill was in

environment education courses. Description of

students' communication skills can be seen based on

the average and standard deviation. There were two

groups of treatment. Description of students'

communication ability is on the Table 1.

Table 1: Description of Students' Communication

Ability.

Treatment

Mean

Std. Deviation

ARS

(Mentimeter)

77,9

7,52

Conventio

nal

42,6

7,95

Both of ARS (Mentimeter) and conventional

classes were 41 students. The average of students'

communication skills in ARS class was 77,9 with a

standard deviation of 7,52. In other hand, the

average students' communication abilities in

conventional classroom were 42,6 with a standard

deviation of 7,95. The average of both groups was

60,1 and standard deviation is 7,74. Students'

communication ability to have a range of values

between 0 - 100 so students' communication abilities

in the ARS and conventional class be able to be

classified in the good and moderate criteria,

respectively.

Normality test of the data based on learning

approach showed that both the ARS and

conventional classes have p-value < 0.05 by

Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Based on the Shapiro-

Wilk test, ARS class has p-value of < 0.05 and

conventional class has p-value < 0.05. Test of

homogeneity of variance showed that ARS and

conventional class have a p-value > 0.05. Therefore,

it can be concluded that test based on learning

approach that data of students' communication

ability came from non-normal distributed population

and abilities of students' in communication were

homogeny based learning approach.

Statistical tests of effects of method of learning

on students' communication skill used the Mann-

Whitney Test. The output of test is on Table 2. Table

2 Showed factor of learning approach that has a p-

value < 0.05. It means learning approaches has

effect on the ability of students' communication.

Tabel 2: Test Statistics

SCS

Mann-Whitney U

16,000

Wilcoxon W

877,00

-7,779

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed)

0,000

a. Grouping Variable: Approach

4 DISCUSSION

The results of the study showed that there was an

effect of using ARS on student communication

skills. The research team has prepared all the

possibilities that occur during research, especially

the potential problems when introducing new

technology. Potential problems can arise when

introducing new technology in education. The

researcher recommends that teachers explain new

technologies that will be used in learning activities

for their students (Kay and LeSage, 2009).

Therefore, at the beginning of the learning activity,

the researcher asks a question and the student

answers via Mentimeter. After all students can

convey all the answers well and smoothly, the

lecturer continues with the learning activities. One

of the studies carried out in the study discussed the

problem of environmental pollution. Students are

faced with environmental issues that occur in

Ternate City. The environmental issues that are used

as problems in the learning activities are as follows.

Water pollution in Ternate City is caused by

organic and non - organic chemicals sourced

from households and industries. What efforts can

you do to maintain water in Ternate City to avoid

pollution?

Students answer questions asked by lecturers

through the website menti.com. Mentimeter is an

interaction media that can be used by students to

actively participate in classroom learning activities.

This media allows students to provide answers or

opinions that have been prepared by the lecturer

without being identified. Therefore, students have

been trained at the beginning of the learning

ICTL 2018 - The 1st International Conference on Teaching and Learning

220

activities to write down the names of each at the

beginning of the answers delivered. The purpose of

writing the name is to see the development of

student abilities from week by week. Some student

answers submitted through the mentimeter are as

follows.

Student A: The effort is done by not throwing

garbage in the sea and giving a warning not to

throw-in of garbage in the sea. Student B: The effort

is to maintain cleanliness in the sea, by taking

organic waste to be recycled. Student C: The effort

taken is not to throw-in of garbage in the sea, and to

give information to the fishermen not to use

explosives or chemicals in the fishing. Student D: A

work that can be done is that we do not make the

water flow to the sea so that the water that has been

mixed with dirt or other chemicals is not forwarded

to the sea. Student E: The effort is by not throwing

garbage in the sea as well as the use of waste in the

sea by recycling.

Based on the overall answers of students, it was

shown that ARS ( Mentimeter ) is an effective media

in increasing student involvement in classroom

learning activities (Funnell, 2017). Although there

are obstacles related to the internet network, all

students actively participate in learning activities.

This is indicated by student participation in

expressing their opinions through Mentimeter.

Good communication will occur if the recipient

of the message understands what is conveyed by the

sender of the message. Therefore, it is necessary that

all components involved in a communication play a

role in order to have good communication. The

success of communication can be seen based on the

smoothness and coherence of negotiations between

all components/participants towards the desired goal

(Forrest, 2008). One of the indication of whether a

communication is effective or not is to look at the

process of interaction means that occurs between

learning plans, learning, and the experience and

understanding of the students after learning (Olteanu

and Olteanu, 2012). This shows that the preparation,

the process, and the results are a unity of success of

communication. The teacher's preparation in

choosing the right form of communication will

direct the success of improving communication

activities.

Besides being able to be used in ARS learning

activities it is possible to use it in measuring

students' initial abilities before learning activities

(pre-assessment), measuring student attitudes,

assessing whether students have completed assigned

reading and continuing the next steps of learning

activities, allowing students to confirm conceptual

errors, improve students 'memory of the material,

test students' understanding, contribute to fair

assessment, facilitate peer discussion and

interaction, and increase student attendance in the

classroom (Duncan, 2005). Therefore, this media

should be a new alternative in solve learning

problems.

5 CONCLUSION

Mentimeter is a student response system or some

people prefer the term Turning Point or Clickers. A

web-based system like this reduces the burden on

lecturers because students can use their own mobile

phones to participate in internet learning activities

by entering six-digit codes to participate in

answering questions or assignments. Lecturers no

longer need to give a set of questions or collect

answers that have been done manually by students.

This reduces waste of time that can be used for

further learning. Questions that can be made in

Mentimeter can be multiple choice, open questions,

or scale. Mentimeter also provides a menu for

lecturers to check the check to which students

understand the material they have explained.

Therefore, lecturers can do remedial or repetition of

material, if the student's understanding of the

material explained by the lecturer is felt to be

lacking.

Research has shown that the use of media such as

mentimeter is useful for students to be able to

actively participate in learning activities. Mentimeter

can show answers to questions at that time. Users

also don't need to download and need to also install.

We only need to visit the Mentimeter website and

we can participate easily using a cellphone, tablet, or

laptop.

The ability to communicate in each student is of

course different. However, mentimeter have been

able to demonstrate their communication skills. If

this learning activity is done regularly, the student is

expected to improve their good communication.

Communication that occurs in the classroom is one

indicator of the success of a lecturer in managing

learning activities. However, all students also play

an important role in the communication process.

Therefore, students need to be good communication

skills. There are some skills needed by students to be

active and able to accept the opinions of others in

learning. There are paraphrasing, checking

impressions, and using "I" messages (Arends and

Kilcher, 2010). Paraphrasing is communication skill

needed by students to convince yourself to

The Effect of Mentimeter Application on Enhancing Studentsâ

Z Communication Skills through Environments Issues

221

understand what the other person. Once students are

able to understand what the other person, then they

are expected to check the truth of the statement

feelings or emotions of others with skills in

communication checking impressions. After that,

students are expected to be able to determine their

standpoint or viewpoint on what others have said

through using "I" messages. Conditioning a learning

activity needs good preparation. Lecturers must be

able to choose a strategy or learning approach that is

in accordance with the character of the subject

matter so that the learning objectives can be

achieved.

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