| What is a Classroom Response System? |
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Commonly referred to as CRS (classroom response
systems), this innovative concept has become increasingly popular
on
college campuses in the last five years. There are many different
products available, but the over-arching concept is the same;
students use hand-held clickers, visually similar to a TV remote,
to respond to multiple choice or polling questions that the
instructor posts as part of their daily lecture. The responses
are gathered with radio frequency by a central receiver, tallied,
and immediately projected back for all to see. With some creativity
on the
part of the faculty, this teaching-tool can be used to inspire
class discussion, analyze the true level of understanding on
a given topic, and review the previous day's material.
But, more significantly, the anonymous nature of the CRS systems
draws in and engages those students who reside on the periphery
of the
classroom
experience.
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| What is the benefit to me? |
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There are many well-documented benefits that arise from the
use of response systems in the classroom. The most common benefits
cited include:
- The transformation of a passive learning environment
into an active one has been shown to dramatically improve
the retention of new information.
- Students feel like full participants in the direction
of the class and the speed with which material is covered.
- Students who are traditionally hesitant to respond
or participate in class benefit from the anonymity that
the pad
provides, allowing them to be actively engaged without raising
a hand or saying a word.
- Faculty can more accurately assess whether or not a concept
has been sufficiently mastered by the majority
of the class and can adjust their lecture and pace accordingly on the
fly.
CPSrf offers the additional benefits of individualized online
accounts. Student responses to the questions and class activities
asked in class
are uploaded by the instructor to the CPSOnline student accounts,
automatically creating study and review guides based on each
student's classroom responses.
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| Why is this
being used in my class this semester?
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The Tufts CRS project is a pilot program, with support from
Academic Technology’s APT (A Partnership in Technology)
grant program and the School of Arts and Sciences’ Information
Technology Services, designed to test classroom response systems
in 3 Medford campus classrooms in the spring of 2006. The goal
is to test the product, concepts, and viability of CRS at Tufts.
Faculty participants include: Esther Zirbel, Physics and
Astronomy department; George Norman, Economics department;
and Kerri Conditto, Romance Languages department.
Although the use of response systems change the way teachers
teach, the most profound effects and benefits are to the
students. Your experience and opinions will shape the direction
for this technology at Tufts. The project team will periodically
ask you to fill out a short survey (we promise to keep it
to two minutes or less) and will adjust the pilot accordingly,
based on your feedback.
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| The eInstruction web site mentioned
a per-semester fee to register the pad online. Will I have
to pay any money to use this? |
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No; there is no cost to you to participate in
this pilot. The cost of the pad and one semester enrollment
code have been paid for as part of the project.
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| Will I my answers
in class be graded? Will the level of my participation effect
my class grade? |
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The answer to both questions is absolutely
not.
The CRS pilot faculty have all expressed a strong
desire to use this tool to improve the classroom experience,
NOT as a testing or grading tool. Faculty will monitor right/wrong
responses, but only to assess the general comprehension of
a given concept before proceeding to the next topic or section.
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| Who should I contact for
help with a registration or pad problem? |
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One of the deciding factors in choosing eInstruction
as the product vendor for this pilot is the excellent
support they offer to users.
Additional support options are also listed below.
Contact eInstruction
Technical Support
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Technical Support
Hours:
Normal Hours
Monday - Thursday, 7am - 6pm CST
Friday, 7am - 5pm CST
Extended Hours for the Winter/Spring 2006 Term, Jan.
9 - Feb. 17
Monday - Friday, 7am - 8pm CST
Technical Support line -
(888) 333-7532 or (940)-483-1901
(see times above)
techsupp@einstruction.com
Technical Support Chat Room
To enter the Technical Support for Students Chat Room,
go to the Support page and select the box that says "Students-
click here for live support online".
Please insure that any pop-up blockers are not
blocking
this
site.
eInstruction Technical Support Knowledge Base
To search for solutions to
common issues and step by step guides to common CPS tasks - kb.einstruction.com
Send an Error Submission Form
The error submission form is located on the Customer
Support web page |
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Contact the Information
Technology Services helpdesk |
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617-627-5898
helpdesk@ase.tufts.edu |
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Contact the Project
Team |
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tina.riedel@tufts.edu |
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Next
- Getting Started |
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