Student Response Systems (SRS)

Student Response Systems (SRS) are great resources and tools to gauge a student’s understanding of material. Especially for formative assessments, these tools can be effective for teachers and students alike due to their engaging and interactive nature as well as being quick and responsive. After our group work and presentation, I have learned about a lot of great SRS. Three of the SRS I decided to review include Padlet, Quizzizz, Mentimeter. For Padlet, the teacher can ask students a question and then all students answer, and the answers get posted to a bulletin board where all can see everyone’s answers. Students are able to share content in a way that feels comfortable and accessible. Some of the biggest pros include the fact that it is easy to use, and students can work together.  Students can see the work of others and collaborate and interact with each other.  At the same time, this can also be a con because students can instantly see others’ opinions and answers and this can cause some students to change their answers. Also, because things get posted right away, students can see other answers without the teacher filtering. This may lead to students posting inappropriate comments or reading others’ comments before forming their own opinion. Here is the link for Padlet: https://padlet.com/.  

Quizizz is another app that I’ve chosen to review. It is an app where the teacher can create multiple choice questions. This is a huge pro because it is easy for the teacher to immediately see whether or not students have mastered the content. However, having a multiple choice assignment can also be a con because the teacher does not know whether the student necessarily knows the answer to the question or if the student simply guessed and happened to get the answer correct. There is no way for the teacher to evaluate whether or not the student knows the reason why he or she chose the specific answer. It is also very easy for students to accidently tap wrong answer. But, despite the cons, Quizizz is unique because students can be assessed through assignments at school and at home and this can be convenient for both students and teachers. Here is the link for Quizizz: https://quizizz.com/.

Mentimeter is the third Student Response System I have chosen to review. This app is very engaging for the students because it has many options for audience interaction which can be fun and engaging for students. This response system is neat because it is a presentation interlaced with questioning. This mitigates the boring, “one-way nature” of many PowerPoint presentations. As educators, one of our biggest goals is to increase student engagement in the classroom, so I feel a response system such as Mentimeter does a great job of this. Also, based on my research, “student engagement” is one of the most important buzz word/ hot topic, so that is also very important to consider. While this SRS is great for students and teachers, there are still cons to this Student Response System. The amount of text a teacher can write per question is limited causing teachers to possibly not have the ability to write or explain the question to the fullest. In the same way, teachers are limited on the number of interactive slides they can create. This too can cause issues since teachers may not be able to cover the amount of desired content needed in the limited slides available. Here is the link for Mentimeter: https://www.mentimeter.com/.

So far, my favorite method for Student Response Systems is GoSoapBox. As the website itself says, “GoSoapBox is a powerful, flexible, and intuitive student response system for educators to use in their classrooms.” I love the way GoSoapBox is so “intuitive” which makes it a non-complicated system that can be taught to students. The SRS is very simple and easy for students to understand, and then for them to communicate their responses. The website also states that it is “[l]everaging web-enabled devices, teachers digitally engage students to conduct formative assessment and gain insight into student comprehension that was never before possible.” It is also an easy way for teachers to receive data from their students’ responses through GoSoapBox.com. For example, a teacher can easily download a spreadsheet to see whether or not the data shows the students are grasping the content of the class. GoSoapBox claims to be not just utilizing technology but actually “leveraging” technology in the best possible way to learn from our students’ responses. There are many features that make this possible. Probably the biggest pro of this application is how simple and easy it is to use. Students do not need to download an application or create an account. Students simply need a device that can connect to the internet.  Here is the link for GoSoapBox: https://www.gosoapbox.com/.

Overall, I feel like the Student Response Systems are great to know about. As a future teacher, I want to find many different ways of assessing my student’s knowledge in order to best understand where my students stand and how to help each of them grow. It will be especially important for me to find a way to gather quick and easy formative data in order to create my instruction to address my students’ needs.