subject: Student Response System Saves Marking Time [print this page] Money is vitally important in the world but it can be easy to overlook time. After all, most people will always wish for more time to do more with their life or to make the most of the opportunities that come their way. This is especially true for teachers who often feel that they are bogged down with administrative tasks or paperwork duties. No teacher decides to become a teacher to spend a lifetime marking papers or filling in reports but it is unfortunately a part of the job. It is also a part of the job that many teachers hate as they believe it holds them back from doing the thing that they should be doing, assisting pupils and inspiring them to achieve more.
One of the biggest drains on a teachers time has to be marking papers and exams but student response systems can provide assistance on this matter. It is accepted that pupils have to be quizzed and their responses calculated to ensure that progress is being made. If a classroom went an entire school term or year without being graded, there would be no way to guarantee that pupils were taking information on board. This could lead to a disaster during exam times so there is a huge need for pupils to be examined throughout the term, as unhelpful and pressurising as this may be.
Student response systems work because answers provided by a pupil will be instantly loaded onto a database and can be marked there and then. There is no need for a teacher to spend time grading every pupil, which in a class of 30 pupils can take a lot of time. Instant feedback can be given which is great because it provides this information while it is fresh in the minds of a pupil. Receiving feedback from a test taken a few days or a week ago can be difficult for a pupil to properly comprehend so this way is definitely a huge improvement.
Student response systems not only allow a teacher to see how the class is performing, it can serve as a barometer for their own performance as well. After all, if all of the class is struggling with a topic, it is more likely that the teaching method used to get the key points across has failed as opposed to all of the pupils not knowing what they should have learned.
