Cloud Class Room Built by NTNU Team Selected as Horizon Report Exemplar Institution
With the advancement of internet and smart devices, a team of National Taiwan Normal University developed a "Cloud Class Room". Using smart phones and tablets with internet access, students in the class can answer or express ideas in class. Teachers can Immediately know the learning situation of students, thus have a more effective teaching environment. The system has been online for more than 4 years. The system is available in 15 languages with more than 60,000 teachers and students registered worldwide with more than 500,000 records. CCR is recognized as Horizon Report Exemplar Institution in 2019, which was selected from over 60 submissions from various institutions in the United States and internationally.
Before, the teacher often ask onstage if there’s any question and only get a silent response. Some teacher would ask students to write notes if they have any questions. This is not only time consuming but also ineffective.
Prof. Chang Chun Yen from the Graduate Institute of Science Education, Dr. Chien Yu Ta, Engineer Li Tsung Yen are the creator of the Cloud Class Room. The system turns mobile devices into a powerful interactive tool used in classroom. This is an Interactive Response System (IRS or the so-called “the clicker” system) without installing additional software and hardware. It helps keep the students’ concentration and participation in class activities. Not only does the CCR use the information equipment already built in Taiwan's current classroom environment, but also has the advantages of cross-platform and installation-free and supports the touch operation mode of tablet PCs and smartphones. CCR enables students to respond to instructors’ prompts, and answers are automatically aggregated and analyzed, providing the teacher with a rough picture of student learning progress just in time.
The team of Prof. Chang build the CCR based on HTML5, which is free from high expense of building software. As long as the students and teacher has a device that have access to Internet, all they need to do is to go to ccr.tw and start the activity. In 2019, the team developed Gamified Electronic Audience Response System, GEARS, which is a more advanced version with limited answer time. CCR is free of use and can be used by many people at the same time. Being the first project selected by Horizon Report, the team of NTNU demonstrated the soft power of Taiwan.