Simplify classroom management with class control software

The situation in a typical classroom has always been somewhat like this: students cross-talking among themselves during an ongoing lesson, not following instructions carefully, looking at a peer’s copy during a test, and so on. Teachers constantly struggle to keep the attention of students on the task. Monitoring students require walking over to each of them manually to check what they are doing on their devices.

Every teacher wants to keep their students interested in their lessons and to see them brimming with eagerness to learn the information coming their way. A classroom management software can help in making this possible by simplifying the process of managing students and progressing through the lesson content with zero distraction. The following points explore how the software aids in simplifying classroom management:

Seamless support to learners:

The bigger the class, the more difficult it is for teachers to cater to the needs of every student. A classroom management software can simplify the process of monitoring student activities by enabling teachers to interact with students and provide one-to-one support to help them keep pace with the ongoing lesson. Teachers can easily identify a learner’s weaknesses and provide assistance in areas where they require additional help.

In a classroom, young students often encounter technical difficulties while using the device or strive to follow verbal instructions from the teacher. These issues, if not addressed in time, can lead to knowledge gaps and poor academic results. A classroom management software enables the teacher to can remotely take control of the learners’ device and help them to access the materials needed for the lesson being taught in class.

Classroom collaboration:

Group discussions and similar team-building activities play a key role in boosting student learning and development and enhance participation. However, in a large classroom, group discussions are difficult to conduct as too many students may speak at the same time, while introverts may not even speak up during these sessions or may feel left out. The teacher may also face difficulties in processing all the responses and providing feedback.

Classroom management software comes with screen-sharing and group chat options that provide an alternative way of collaborative learning. Screen-sharing allows teachers to show their screen or any particular student’s screen to an individual or the whole class. It enables teachers to explain concepts better and also induce collaborative attitude in them. Using the group chatting feature, teachers can easily create student groups and assign them to collaborate on a task. Such activities are useful for training students on the effective use of technology while encouraging them to come up with a solution to the assigned problem collaboratively. On the other hand, the one-to-one chat feature helps students to directly communicate their queries and concerns to their teachers. In addition, such software solutions make it easy for teachers to reach out to students discreetly, without disturbing the whole class, especially for giving feedback on a completed task. Teachers can thus align instructional strategies per the varied needs of students and respond to each student individually, making the learning process engaging and enjoyable.

Lesson effectiveness:

Monitoring students’ progress is a practice that helps teachers to use the collected insights for evaluating the effectiveness of their teaching method and modify instructional strategy accordingly. Student's performance is usually evaluated on the following grounds:

Skills that students learn during an academic yearIdentifying achievement goals that students should reachHow successfully have students grasped the curriculum content taught

Modern educators acknowledge the fact that not every student learns at the same pace. It is, therefore, necessary to constantly track student progress over a period of time. Classroom management software solutions can simplify the process for teachers by helping them create quizzes, polls, anonymous feedback questionnaire, and other types of assessment activities during an ongoing class to effectively evaluate how each student is progressing.

Total classroom visibility:

When students can easily access technology in schools, there are possibilities that some of them will explore it in ways that are not relevant in an educational setting. Instant messengers, gaming applications, irrelevant web surfing, and social media are among the common distractions in smart classrooms. Without the right tools, it is extremely difficult for teachers to monitor what students are doing on their devices during a running class.

Using classroom management software, teachers can monitor the on-screen activity of every student in real-time from their own device. If students are found engaged in distractions, teachers can disable their keyboards and mouse activities or blank out their computer screens. Teachers can thus notify students immediately about their misconduct and redirect them back to the ongoing lesson without manual surveillance or altering seating arrangements, thereby saving teaching time. A classroom management software also comes with the feature for limiting students’ access to only relevant applications and websites as specified by the teachers.

Simplify assessments:

Using classroom management software, teachers can easily create tests with multiple choice, short answer, and essay-type questions. During tests, teachers have to walk over from student to student to check that they do not copy answers from their peers, or use mobile devices to find out the answer. This is a tiring task. With class control software, teachers can restrict students from receiving incoming messages and visiting unauthorised applications or websites to ensure that students aren’t using any unfair means during the exam.

Class control software solutions, thus, help teachers in minimising most of the drawbacks and risks associated with learners using internet-powered devices. Both students and teachers can, therefore, make the most of what educational technology has to offer.

Jose Richardson, Marketing, Class Control SoftwareImage Credit: Wokandapix / Pixabay

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