Developing and Implementing a Classroom Response System (CRS) on a Local Area Network for the Technical University of Tamale (TUT)

Classroom Response Systems (CRSs) are used to motivate and foster questioning and feedback, monitor students participation and to also facilitate the discussions of important concepts within a learning environment. CRS have over the years been implemented in various forms. [4] Initial implementation of CRS were Audience Response Systems (ARS) commonly called clickers or key-pads in the United States and handsets or zappers in the United Kingdom. Notwithstanding the popularity of clickers and the increasing popularity of mobile devices over the past years, researchers have explored other ways of implementing all the functionalities of traditional clickers in ways that will make use of the mobile devices. [7] This has eventually transcended in the implementation of CRS on the web. This research seeks to identify the possibilities of implementing CRS on the local area network of the Technical University of Tamale (TUT) taking into consideration the views of lecturers and students sampled to come out with functionalities for the development of the prototype of CRS which was hosted on the existing local area network of the Institution. Simulation and testing was done based on the use cases developed for facilitators and participants. For the purpose of the testing, the system was hosted on our laptop, it was therefore recommended that a dedicated computer should be setup as a server for the application to users. Lecturers and students could also take advantage of the secure wireless internet facility provided by the Institution.