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St. Cloud State University

St. Cloud State University

Classroom Performance System

 

Guidelines for using the Classroom Performance System

Download the complete Guidelines for Use (PDF)

Your students will need to register their response pads with eInstruction, MnSCU’s Classroom Performance System (CPS) vendor. Students should register as soon as possible to ensure they can fully participate in your class.

Before using a CPS in a course, you must distribute a privacy information statement and cautions for students such as those suggested below. You can distribute this information online, in the syllabus, as a separate handout or in some combination of those.

During your use of the CPS system, you might be collecting data of a confidential nature. If you are storing confidential data on portable media such as a laptop or flash drive, please be mindful of taking appropriate precautions to ensure the security of this data.

You can adapt the following suggested version to make it relevant and useful in your courses.

 

**SAMPLE**

Privacy Notice to Students

It is important to note that any information provided to a CPS service vendor through the registration process may not be safeguarded. As a result, it is critical that you do not use your HuskyNet ID, your 8-digit student ID, your social security number, passwords for other accounts, your name for your user ID or any other identifying information when registering.

You may also include general advice and specific instructions for the CPS to be used in the course, such as the following:
Important things to note:

  • Keep track of your CPS user name, password and response pad ID number! These will be shown in your browser window when you register, and e-mailed to you. The response pad ID number is what you will see on the screen in class. If you are assigned number “125” you should see “125” light up on the screen when you press the keypad on your response pad (we’ll test this out in class).
  • Write down the serial number of your response pad, label it, or both, in case you get it mixed up with someone else's. (Don’t mark it permanently if you want to sell it back to the Bookstore or to another student at the end of the semester). An address sticker could help someone return a lost response pad to you.
  • Response pads can be used for multiple courses. A registration card needs to be purchased each semester that you have a course using the CPS.
  • With most systems, you only have to “join the class” once. After that, simply click Students, and log in under Existing CPS Online Users. You will need your CPS user name and password.
  • If you need help, please contact the eInstruction tech support line at 1-888-333-7532.

After logging into the CPS, you can:

  • Check your response pad ID number (short, on-screen number).
  • Check your response pad serial number (longer number on the back of the CPS response pad).
  • Change your response pad serial number, if you entered it incorrectly the first time, or you had to exchange a malfunctioning response pad.

You will need to bring your CPS response pad to every class.


Cautionary information for faculty regarding student confidentiality and data privacy

Data Management

When you use a CPS system, data you collect may be stored on a server maintained by the system vendor, by a textbook publisher, or by another commercial entity.

Vendors/publishers often provide online and/or telephone technical support, and they may offer training. If you request a CPS for your classroom/course(s), please be sure that you have assurances of data privacy in writing from the providers of the system.

It is of concern to SCSU that vendors, publishers, or other commercial entities may collect private information about users through the registration process. Instructors and the university must be alert to data requests, especially in regard to Minnesota and federal data privacy laws. In all cases, faculty are responsible for student data privacy and should be conversant with the regulations and certain of system suppliers’ adherence to laws and regulations.

An instructor often must transfer or copy course data (attendance, response sets, etc.) from the commercial server to a local computer or server, to a course management system (such as D2L), or to whatever record-keeping system they use to track students’ progress in the course. The ease of this transfer process varies from system to system.