Efficacy of Response Cards in College Classrooms: A Systematic Literature Review

There are over five decades of research on the use of response cards as an effective strategy for increasing active student responding. Response cards are cards or signs that students simultaneously raise to display their answers to a teacher's question. There have been multiple research studies and literature reviews examining the effectiveness of response cards for increasing participation and academic achievement in elementary, middle, and high school settings. The extent to which response cards are effective in college classrooms is less known. We conducted a systematic literature review and analyzed nine articles that empirically evaluated response cards in post-secondary settings. Overall, the findings indicate that response cards may be effective at improving quiz scores, though caution is needed, as some studies reported minimal or no effect. Sixty-seven percent of studies found response cards more effective than a hand-raising condition, and 63% found response cards more effective than a control condition. We discuss the degree to which response cards have been used, major implementation procedures, effectiveness scores, current suggestions for their use, and areas for future research.

The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-025-01084-7.