Beginning of Class – questions to see how well students grasp the material from the previous class.? Enables the instructor to know which area needs more focus.
During Class – questions can be inserted to see how well students are grasping material and what the instructor needs to emphasize more on.
Before End of Class – Instructor can see how well students have grasped today’s material, and what to re-focus on at the beginning of next class.

Some benefits of using an IRS system include but are not limited to:

1. Encourages critical thinking, leading to a higher level of attention and retention
2. Increases class participation, Interactive 2-way conversation with students
3. Individual student results can be quickly and easily tracked and recorded
4. Instant report viewing to immediately identify struggling students
5. Can easily see when all students have responded
6. Involve everyone, especially less active, shy students
7. Allows students to answer anonymously
8. Create and maintain a portfolio for every student
9. Reduce paperwork
10. Reduce grading and administrative workload
11. On the spot assessment, consensus building, audience polling
12. Conduct more effective research
13. Build teamwork
14. Stimulates interaction and thought through voting, and participation

Interactive Response System also known as (Classroom Response System, Audience Response System, CCS, CPS, PRS, etc..) has greatly improved the quality of teaching in US and European schools, especially in higher education, in recent years, and is being used by over 1000 educational institutions in the above mentioned countries ie. Harvard University, Brown University, all the California State Universities, just to name a few.

Research has shown that the average student’s concentration period is at maximum 30 minutes, while the average class time is usually 50 minutes. In this 20 minutes of “wasted time”, IRS can add value by bringing back the student, by forcing them to pay attention and respond. IRS is not only beneficial for the student, but also for the teacher. It is particularly useful for engaging and maintaining the interest of students in large classrooms, engaging students throughout a lecture. In a study done by the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, class results increased substantially with the use of this system.

Back in 1991, Harvard Professor invented “Flashcards” for the purpose of instantly being able to view student response, and is has been widely used in a method of teaching called “Peer Instruction”. Today, flashcards have widely been replaced by IRS and computers.