Classroom Performance System (CPS™)
Windows
Release Notes
Release 6.70 February 2011
Contents
General Information
Description
The Classroom Performance System (CPS™) is an integrated software and hardware solution. The hardware consists of radio frequency (RF) or infrared (IR) student response devices and a receiver (or hub). The CPS™ software provides the tools to create and deliver course-relevant questions while adhering to Standards. Students use their devices to respond to questions. The receiver transmits the students’ responses to the CPS™ software. CPS™ compiles and reports the students' performance results.
System
Requirements
Minimum System Requirements:
- Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
- Intel Pentium IV processor 1GHz equivalent or higher (or equivalent)
- 512 MB RAM (1 GB RAM for Vista)
- 500 MB hard disk space for installation
- Video Card and display capable of XVGA (1024 x 768) or higher resolution with minimum of 16-bit color
- One available USB port
- Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 (for PowerPoint integration)
Recommended:
- Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
- Intel Core2 Duo processor 2GHz equivalent or higher
- 2 GB RAM
- 1 GB hard disk space for installation
- CD-ROM Drive for installation
- Video Card and display capable of XVGA (1024 x 768) or higher resolution with minimum of 24-bit color
- One available USB port
- Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 (for PowerPoint integration)
Known Issues
General Operation
- If you are using eInstruction® applications together, such as: Response, Workspace™, CPS, ExamView®, you will need to upgrade all of these applications to the latest released version in order for Device Manager to communicate properly among them.
- With Windows XP, users will see an error message with the Microsoft wisptise.exe application when a DualBoard™ or Mobi™ is connected via USB. Microsoft has addressed this issue and an update is available for Windows XP SP2 systems.
Please see the following KB articles for more information.
CPS
Essay question support is limited to Teacher Led Assessment (TMA), Teacher Led Student Managed Assessment (TLSMA), and Practice modes
Merging of homework sessions not supported
If the PC is not restarted after installation, CPS™ may experience performance issues on initial startup.
When engaging in multiple CPS™ lessons using a Cricket device, CPS™ will display a communication failure from the receiver if multiple lessons are engaged in succession. eInstruction’s recommendation to avoid this behavior is to close CPS™ between each session.
CPS™ Gen2 RF devices used in Higher-Ed classrooms may encounter a situation as the device is powered on. It will appear to have joined the correct class, but may have joined an earlier instructor’s class that engaged a CPS™ session before the student’s current class. The exhibited behavior will allow the student to respond to questions, but on the official (instructor’s grid, the student’s response will not show within CPS and data will not be recorded for the current class.
This situation may happen under the following conditions:
The student powers on the student response device before the instructor engages a session. In this case, the student would have been joined to another roster in an adjacent classroom where a different or previous teacher had already engaged a lesson.
The student is not in the class roster for the current class. In this case, the student’s student response device will join and will send responses to questions, although the student’s responses will not be recorded.
If this scenario is encountered, the student response device should be powered off and powered back on after the instructor has engaged the CPS™ lesson. At this point, the device should join the correct channel, but the student should verify the channel number to be certain.
An underlying issue with the Microsoft® Jet Engine 4.0 database causes CPS™ to crash when localized in the Kazakh language. Microsoft has released a fix for this issue (Microsoft Jet Internationalization Update): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=62ef886e-c051-4e24-9115-0ec6f8e4ac42&DisplayLang=en&displaylang=en. Once this update is installed, the issue affecting CPS is resolved.
When importing from WebCT, a Login error will occur if a supported JRE (Java Runtime Environment) is not installed on the system. To work around this issue, install a JRE from http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp
On some Windows XP systems, an "End Program - InstallShieldMSIDelete10" message is displayed when restarting immediately after installation. This is more common when using a virtual machine but has been reported on physical machines as well.
In Microsoft PowerPoint 2003, if the font size is changed using the CPS™ PowerPoint toolbar (in slideshow mode); PowerPoint automatically resizes the font so the entire question fits on the slide. When this occurs, the font size displayed on CPS™ PowerPoint toolbar will not reflect the resized font value. The newly resized font will be retained after the presentation has been switched from slide show mode to design mode.
On Vista systems using PowerPoint 2007, after starting an event macro (such as a CPS™ PowerPoint question) in slide show mode, the Next and Previous options from the right-click menu do not advance to the next or previous slide. This issue has been addressed with the Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 release: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9EC51594-992C-4165-A997-25DA01F388F5&displaylang=en
An error message is displayed when starting CPS™:
CPS™ encountered an error attempting to initialize the main form.
Exception description:
Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {4991D34B-80A1-4291-83B6-3328366B9097} failed due to the following error: 80070422”
Solution:
Select the Windows Start button, and select “Run” from the menu.
In the Open field, enter “services.msc” and click OK.
When the window opens, find “BITS” or “Background Intelligent Transfer Service”. Right click on it and select “Properties” from the menu.
Change the “Startup type” option to automatic.
Click the “Apply” button, and then start the service. Once the service is running you can then open CPS.
For more information see http://support.softdent.lt/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=24
When the user clicks on the Verbal or Chalkboard buttons on the CPS™ PowerPoint toolbar, the toolbar will disappear and reappear.
Users cannot end a CPS™ session when using a CPS™ IR device with unsupported question types. This will occur if "Auto Move to Next Question" is selected and the Ballot Grid is open, when CPS™ automatically moves to an unsupported question type. In order to end the session, the user must close the Ballot Grid windows and navigate back to a supported question type, end the question, and then end the session.
If the first slide of a CPS™ PowerPoint presentation does not contain a question, vClicker℠ ME will not recognize the session. The recommended work around for this issue is to shutdown CPS™ PowerPoint, restart Device Manager, and launch CPS™ PowerPoint. To avoid this issue, Device Manager will need to be restarted each time the user logs in.
Question answers are not displayed in the Instructor Feedback window. This occurs in Student Managed Assessment (SMA) sessions that contain over 127 questions. Questions greater than 127 (128, 129, 130, etc.) will not be displayed in the Instructor Feedback window.
When using Microsoft Office Enterprise edition, users are unable to engage a PowerPoint question in Teacher Managed Assessment (TMA) mode. The Microsoft Office Enterprise edition has Visual Basic for Applications support disabled by default. To enable Visual Basic for Applications support, Microsoft Office Enterprise must be reinstalled and the Visual Basic for Applications option selected in the advanced/customize screen of the installer (Microsoft Office\Office Shared Features\Visual Basic for Applications).
The application can take several minutes to generate reports from large sessions (e.g., 25,000 votes or 500 students with 50 questions each.) During this time, the application may appear to be locked up or frozen.
When launching CPS™ software on a system with the SOPHOS Anti-virus software installed, a Microsoft .NET error may occur. The SOPHOS Anti-virus software can prevent CPS from accessing the Microsoft .NET framework. This error is intermittent; A workaround is to disable or uninstall the SOPHOS Anti-virus software.
When printing to the Microsoft XPS Document Writer, on Windows 7 64-bit systems, the Save-As dialog opens behind the application’s window. At that point the application may appear to be hung because it is waiting for user input from the Save-As dialog box.
When the CPS™ application has been idle for an extended period of time (more than an hour), the CPS™ toolbar may close when the Engage button is clicked. If this occurs, CPS™ must be closed using the system Task Manager, and the application restarted.
An "Unexpected Error" message will be displayed when launching or creating a question in CPS™ for PowerPoint when SMART's product drivers are installed on the system. Clicking the "OK" button on the error message allows CPS for PowerPoint to continue and function properly. To stop the error message from being displayed, launch CPS™ for PowerPoint with Administrative privileges or uninstall the SMART product drivers.
Device Manager
- The Softkeys on the Mobi™ Learner may not work properly if the device is connected while the software is being newly installed or upgraded. Remove the Mobi™ Learner from Device Manager, and rediscover the device for resolution.
- Softkeys can be programmed to perform Interwrite functions or to launch applications. They cannot be programmed to launch files in the application associated with the file.
- When you use the button on the side of the Mobi™ Pen (sometimes referred to as the right or top button) to perform a Ctrl-Click, depress and hold the button for a second or two before releasing it. Do not press rapidly more than once as the system may enter a state in which it seems that no button presses were processed, either from the Pen or mouse. The cursor will move, but no button presses/mouse clicks are processed. To mitigate, hold the Pen close to the whiteboard or tablet and press the upper button on the Pen an additional one or two times. The system will return to normal
- The Show correct answer on clicker option does not work with PRS RF clickers and Cricket clickers when the correct answer is alpha (A, B, or C, etc.). Use a numeric correct answer (1, 2, or 3, etc.) as a workaround in a mixed class environment.
- In Ubuntu, Java windows may appear blank when Desktop Effects are enabled. To disable Desktop Effects, select System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Visual Effects and then, select None.
- A duplicate USB device will appear in Device Manager each time a supported USB device is physically moved to a different USB port. The USB port address is used by Device Manager to uniquely identify and store user preferences for a device. When the USB device is physically attached, only the device with the matching USB address will be shown as connected in Device Manager, all other duplicated devices will be shown as disconnected.
Installation
Information
Installing the CPS software from the CPS CD
- Insert the CPS CD and the Install window should appear.
- Click the Install CPS or Install CPS PPT button / icon to start the installation.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation of the software.
Release Notes