ClassPulse is a new entry into the crowded market of polling and messaging apps for schools. I learned about the app through Audrey Watters’ weekly round-up of education news and then I gave the app a try on my Android phone.

Audrey described the ClassPulse as “another classroom feedback tool” and that’s exactly what it is. It has the core features found in every other app like it. You can create classrooms that your students join through an assigned join code. Once students have joined your classroom you can start posting messages for them to read and you can post poll questions for them to vote on. Like most other classroom feedback tools, ClassPulse gives you the option to let students post anonymous feedback.

In my testing of ClassPulse I found it easy to set-up a classroom and to post messages for students to reply to. However, when it came to setting-up polls I ran into a little snag that was only resolved by quitting the app and trying again. That snag was that when I tapped on the “poll” option ClassPulse didn’t recognize my classroom as being created and instead prompted me to create another classroom. That little annoyance was resolved by quitting the app.

Applications for Education
Feedback tools like ClassPulse have been around for years. They’re useful for getting some feedback from your students about how a lesson is going for them, they’re understanding of a topic, or just what they would like you to review with them.

If you haven’t tried a classroom feedback/ polling tool or you’re looking to try a new one, ClassPulse could be for you. That said, there are other tools like it that are bit more developed. Poll Everywhere, Remind, and even Google Classroom have similar capabilities.