Choosing a classroom engagement tool for a college
What to look for in a classroom engagement tool for colleges and universities in India: phone-first joining, exam integrity, records, rewards, campus structure and price.
Short answer: A good classroom engagement tool for a college lets students join from their phones without installing anything, covers polls, quizzes and Q&A in one place, keeps exams honest on students’ own devices, saves each class’s history and marks, and fits how the campus is organised into schools, programs and sections.
The checklist
- Joining: students join in seconds with their college Google account, with no app to install.
- Activity range: polls, quizzes, open questions, Q&A, groups and presentations in one tool.
- Exam integrity: rules for tests on students’ phones, enforced on the server.
- Records: participation history, a gradebook and course outcomes, not just a live screen that disappears.
- Motivation: a way to reward participation that does not inflate grades.
- Classroom control: a projector view and a way to run class from a phone.
- Campus structure: schools, programs, sections and shared plans across professors.
- Data location and privacy: where student data is stored and who can see it.
- Price: a free way to try it, and clear plans for professors and institutions.
Questions to ask in a demo
- What happens if a student switches app during a test?
- Can two professors share a class or a course plan?
- Can a program head see every section’s plan and progress?
- How long does a new professor take to run their first activity?
Where Sessional fits
Sessional is built for this checklist: phone-first joining, live activities, lockdown exams, coins and rewards, a gradebook and outcomes, projector and phone remote, and an institution structure with schools, programs and course champions. Professors can start free at sessional.in.
Questions people ask
Do students need laptops?
Not for Sessional. Students take part on their phones; the professor runs class from a laptop or a phone.