Classroom

About Classroom

Classroom is a small tool for the oldest teaching pattern there is: ask a question, pick someone, wait. It puts the question on the screen, starts a clock the moment the question appears, and records how long the answer took.

You choose how people are picked — a rota that moves to the next student each question, choosing by hand each time, or everyone answering every question. You also choose whether there is a time limit at all; leaving it off simply records the duration rather than cutting anyone off, which is often what you actually want.

At the end it shows how it went: who answered what, and how long each one took. It is deliberately small — no grades, no accounts, no data leaving the room. Marking is optional: give a question an accepted answer and it is checked automatically, or mark by hand on the results screen.

How to use Classroom

Add the names of whoever is answering, choose how they get picked, and set a time limit or leave it open. Then type your first question and put it on the board.

Hand the keyboard over. The clock runs while they type their answer, and stops when they submit. Move to the next question and the rota advances on its own. When you are done, the summary screen shows the whole session — each question, each answer and how long it took.

How to run a Classroom session

1. Write your questions on the setup screen. Use + Add for one at a time, or Paste a list to drop in several at once, one question per line.
2. For any question with a clear right answer, fill in the optional Accepted answer box. Separate alternatives with a | symbol, or leave it blank to mark that question by hand afterwards. In a pasted list, put the answer after a | on the same line.
3. Add the people in the room with + Add student, or paste a class list with one name per line. Pasting replaces the placeholder "Student 1" and "Student 2" entries.
4. Choose a time limit per answer and an order, then press Start the session.
5. Each question appears in large type with the student's name, a clock and a row showing who has answered and who is next. The answerer types underneath, a counter tracks the words, and Submit answer or Ctrl+Enter moves on. Skip passes without an answer, and End session stops early.
6. The "How it went" screen lists every answer with its time and mark. From there, Export CSV saves the results and New session takes you back to setup.

Classroom tips for teachers

• Have the student seated first. The clock starts the moment a question appears. In the choose-each-time mode it starts as soon as you tap a name, so seat the answerer before you pick them.
• Keep accepted answers short. Marking ignores capitals and punctuation, and an answer counts as correct if it contains the accepted text. "Tokyo" matches "It's Tokyo", but a long accepted sentence will almost never match word for word.
• Check the marks before you trust them. Because matching only looks for the accepted text, "not Tokyo" would also count. Click any mark on the results screen to flip it between correct and wrong.
• Let the colour do the warning. With a limit set, the bar under the question turns amber for the last quarter of the time and red for the final five seconds, so the room can see time running out without a countdown being read aloud.
• Mind the length of "everyone answers". Every student takes every question in turn, so ten questions for six students is sixty turns. It suits short lists and small groups best.
• Prepare the night before. Questions and names are remembered in the browser you used, so setting them up on the classroom machine in advance saves time at the start of the lesson.
• Export before you close. Answers and marks are not kept once the tab is gone, so press Export CSV if you want a record.

Marking, timing and the results file

Questions without an accepted answer are left for you to judge. On the results screen they show as "wrong" until you click the mark to change it, while questions with an accepted answer arrive already marked. A skipped question is recorded as skipped and counts as wrong, and an answer cut off by the time limit is labelled "ran out" next to its time.

Across the top of the results sit the totals for the session: number of answers, average time, quickest and slowest. After those comes a chip for each student with their average time and, once any of their answers have been marked, a score such as 3/4.

The CSV download has one row per answer, with columns for student, question, answer, seconds, whether time ran out and whether it was correct. It opens in any spreadsheet program, which makes it easy to keep a running record over several lessons or to see which questions took the class longest.