Using the Classroom Performance System in Your Class

I'm going to blog about the Classroom Performance System, otherwise known as CPS from einstruction. Smart Technologies has their version which they call the Senteo. Promethean also has their version called the Activexpression. Regardless of which response system you use, they can be used to increase classroom participation and performance. Even the shy quiet students can express their feelings and knowledge comfortably. The use of this response system in your classroom allows you to understand how much your students know or don’t know about the subject you covered in class. You can use the clickers, as they are sometimes called, to review before a test or a review after the test. You can even have your students take the test using the clickers, eliminating the need for scantron sheets. There are a number of ways you can deliver the test to the students. You can have each question displayed on the classroom data projector. In this manner the students would take the test one question at a time. Every student would have to finish the question before the class could move on to the next question. However, the mode you would most likely want to use is the student paced mode. In this mode, the students answer the questions at their own pace. The questions are not displayed on the data projector. Students would have a paper test in front of them. Students can also go back and review the questions before you end the test. As they go back to view a previous question, they not only see their answer displayed on the clicker screen, they also will see their second answer, if they changed it. So for example, if a student answered C for question number 6, but then changed their answer to D, they would see both answers displayed on the screen when they revisited the question again. The teacher asks the class if they are finished. Once the teacher clicks “end”, the answers are set and the test is graded. It’s that quick! The students would receive their test grade immediately after the class is finished. Receiving instant feedback is huge for the students! You will no longer be asked “have you graded the test yet?” There is also a mode called “student practice”. In this mode the students cannot move to the next question until they have answered it correctly. Their first answer however is the one that is graded.
Once you give the class a test, or lesson as they call it, you can preview or print one of 26 different reports from the collected student response data. Instructor summary will display the students’ names and grades. You also have a choice of item analysis, students study guides and many other types of reports.
You can also import your PowerPoint presentations into CPS. When you engage the presentation, the verbal toolbar is displayed at the bottom of the window. This will allow you to ask questions on the fly, record and chart the student responses.
The possibilities for the use of this response system in the classroom are endless and powerful. The bottom line is student achievement and participation will greatly increase and that’s what it is all about! Check them out and engage your students!