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clickers for Instructors

** Please Read: Known issue with a batch of NXT Clickers that affects the battery life. **

Instructors using ClickersGetting Started

During the 2009-2010 academic year VSU adopted Turning Technologies Audience Response System aka 'Clickers' as the campus standard. The ResponseCard NXT is the current recommended model.

Clickers provide instructors with the opportunity to increase student engagement and participation during lectures and also allows for self-paced testing (replacing the use of Scantrons). Students can purchase Clickers from the VSU Bookstore for use in all of their classes where faculty adopts this technology.
     

1. Attend Clicker Interest Meeting

  • Using Clickers involves a certain amount of instructor training, student orientation, and classroom support which requires implementation before class starts. Because of the preparation involved, please review this guide and contact eLearning to determine if this technology is a good fit for you.

   
2. Order Clickers for Course(s)

  • In order to use Clickers, instructors must order Clickers several weeks before the semester starts. The easiest way to order Clickers, is to submit the VSU Bookstore's electronic adoption form with the estimated number of clickers need for the class. There is a section on the form where instructors will list "Clickers" as a supply. View this guide for instructions.


3. Attend Clicker Technology Workshops

  • This training provides hands on experience with creating Clicker questions with TurningPoint and adding student results to the BlazeVIEW grade book. View available training dates.
     


 

4. Install TurningPoint

  • Information Technology will install TurningPoint on classroom computers.
  • View this guide to install TurningPoint to office computers, issued laptops, and personal computers.

 

5. Learn How to Effectively Use Clickers

Knowing how to use Clicker Technology is important, but taking time to learn how to effectively use Clickers is essential for increasing student participation and engagement. Solely using Clickers for attendance is not recommended, could cause resentment from students, and does not get the best return on investment (money spent by students, time taken to learn the technology, and time taken to integrate polling technology into the course).

 

6. Prepare PowerPoint Slides

  • After determing how Clickers will be integrated in the course, review PowerPoint presentations and insert Clicker questions where appropriate (See TurningPoint guide).

 

7. Add Clicker Integration to BlazeVIEW Course

  • To maintain all or some student's clicker results as grades, follow these steps to add the TurningPoint, Clicker integration to the BlazeVIEW course(s) utilizing Clickers.
  • This process adds an icon to the course from which students will submit their Clicker's device id number.
  • The BlazeVIEW Integration featue in TurningPoint allows instructors to log into BlazeVIEW and download a Participant List of students (including the submitted device ID numbers). This list is what ties a student's Clicker with their BlazeVIEW account to post Clicker scores to the BlazeVIEW grade book.

 

8. Prepare Students

 

9. Run your first Clicker Presentation

  • Schedule an appointment with eLearning to help facilitate initial Clicker sessions. eLearning can continue to provide in classroom support until instructors are comfortable using the technology.

 

* Clickers are supported by the eLearning Department.