The importance of collecting data in the classroom

For teachers, collecting data can inform them on their effectiveness in delivering instruction and provide them information on students’ progress. One of the challenges with collecting data is the time it requires to prepare the content, deliver the content, and more importantly, grade the content. I remember when I was in the classroom and the emphasis placed on collecting student data on a weekly basis. You can imagine all the papers piling up on my desk.

With SMART’s Response lab activity, teachers can easily create a variety formal assessments. From multiple choice, to true or false, multiple answer, poll/opinion, and short answer, Response is a great tool to help collect important data. Create an assessment based on the topic of your choice with a mix of question types. Or, create an assessment based on a single specific question type.

Here’s how to use Response to collect data

1. To access this activity, first click on your SMART Notebook icon.
2. Then, click on the Activities icon that looks like a robot.

3. When you click on that icon, a window should appear with all the different SMART Lab activities you can create. Scroll down and look for the one called Response.

4. Next, you’ll be prompted to add content based on the question type you want to select.

Once you have created your content, you can have students take the assessment on any device with internet access. Once the assessment has been completed, you’ll be able to access individual student data by clicking on the “Export Results” tab on the bottom right of the screen. An Excel spreadsheet will open up showing you each student’s grade.

As you can see, using SMART’s Response lab activity is an easy way to create assessments, and look at the data afterwards. We hope this blog has proven helpful. The next time you need to create assessments and look at student data, save yourself the time it would take to grade by utilizing this feature!

For more tips and tricks from Teq around technology integration in the classroom, visit our Teq Talk blog homepage.