AN INNOVATIVE SYSTEM FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF STUDENT QUERIES IN COMPUTER BASED CLASSROOMS

Abstract

Classrooms equipped with a large number of personal computers are common when teaching many technical careers. A common issue for the teachers in these workshops is a fair management of student queries. Students usually ask for help by raising their hands to attract the teacher’s attention. The teacher then decides which student should be attended, therefore, in case of numerous requests, many students are not properly helped. Nowadays, query management can be automated, therefore the use of an arbitrary system seems to be out-of-date. One university classroom uses a new ICT tool, CRONOS, developed by the authors of this article. This experimental computer software runs in the classroom orkstations and in the server computer, its display being visible for all the students. The system does not require any speci? c hardware. CRONOS manages the queries queue as the students request help and displays the number of the workstation that is to be attended next. The students use their keyboards to ask for help, or to have their finished exercises corrected. This new teaching tool is seen by the students as very positive and motivational.After the implementation of the system, CRONOS sessions have been compared with the traditional ones. This comparison has shown that CRONOS is a useful tool in order to study the development of teaching methods and to improve it, because it allows to measure the ffectiveness of the student work and to optimize waiting times and care, among other parameters.