On-Demand With the events that we've collectively experienced, we all deserve a win. This webinar featuring lessons and tips gleaned from the 2021 winners of Skyfactor's Assessment and Impact Award for Nursing will deliver exactly that. Register today to hear directly from nursing programs who are effectively utilizing assessment data to improve their services and programming. This year's winners have amazing tales of success and resiliency and exactly how they used assessment findings to inform program improvement. View the Recording Here! View the Recording ... View more

  We’re ringing in the New Year with a few new features for iClicker Cloud instructors. Learn more and see the new releases in action at our Back to Campus webinar later this month! Confidence Rating: This tool encourages students to reflect on their learning in class and provides instructors additional real-time insight into student understanding. As they respond to polls in class using the iClicker student mobile and web apps, students will have the option to rate their level of confidence in each response. Instructors can display aggregate confidence ratings in class on the Results chart and view them after class through the Class History section of the instructor website. Software Updates to Support Confidence Rating: Instructors: Cloud 5.2.1 will be released to support Confidence Rating for 2022 classes. This will be an optional update, but you must update your desktop software if you plan to use Confidence Rating. To update, follow the in-app prompt to update your desktop software, use the iClicker Cloud menu option to 'Check for Updates', or visit the iClicker Downloads page. Students: Version 6.3 of the iOS and Android apps will be released to support Confidence Rating for 2022 classes. The iClicker student web app will be updated automatically. This will be an optional update, but students must update their mobile apps or participate with the web app to use Confidence Rating. Unlisted Courses: Unlisted courses will be invitation-only and will not appear in search results if students attempt to manually look up the course in their apps. Students must enroll via either the course’s unique Quick Join code/link or LMS integration (e.g., Roster & Grade Sync). Instructors can manage student enrollment options upon creating a new course or modifying an existing course’s settings. Streamlined Desktop Software Launch: To provide clearer messaging around when to use the instructor website vs. desktop software and a more consistent experience for users with and without computer admin rights, the “Start Class” button on the instructor website will no longer launch the desktop software. Instructors will instead see a reminder that they need to switch to the desktop software to run in-class activities. Improved Integration Settings: The Integrations tab of the course settings will provide information about the relevant grade sync type based on what the campus admin has enabled for the instructor’s school. ... View more

Before starting a new term with iClicker Cloud, we recommend taking a few moments to archive last term’s course(s) and set up your new term’s course(s): Make sure last term’s courses are archived. Your courses will automatically archive on the End Date you set during course creation. You can also archive a course at any time in the desktop software or on the instructor website. You are still able to access your course information, but the archived course will no longer appear in the iClicker student app search results and no new students will be able to join the old course in the new term. If you haven’t done so already, update your desktop software. Create a new course in the desktop software or on the instructor website for each course you’re teaching in the new term. While not required, the optional course information can help your students identify your course in their apps. For example, there could be multiple sections of the same course at your institution. This additional information provides more details for your students to recognize and join the correct class. Copy any Assignments you had previously created and wish to reuse in your new course(s). Customize your course settings. Choose how you would like to add grades from iClicker Cloud to your Learning Management System. If Roster & Grade Sync is enabled for your course, you’ll see the prompt to walk you through setup in the Integrations tab of your course settings. If you set up LTI Grade Sync in your LMS last semester, you cannot simply copy the link or assignment from the previous course for the new term. LTI links are course-specific, so you’ll need to set up a new link for each new course. Invite co-instructors or teaching assistants to your new course(s). Share registration instructions with your students. Our customizable syllabus templates and first day of class slides provide a good starting point. Check out the student onboarding resources below that most closely match your own class setup: I am using iClicker Cloud for a virtual class. I am integrating iClicker Cloud with Achieve. I am using iClicker Cloud's Roster & Grade Sync (requires prior setup by a campus administrator). My campus requires that students sign in to iClicker through a campus portal. I am using iClicker Cloud's LTI Grade Sync (requires prior setup by a campus administrator). I am downloading grades from iClicker Cloud and manually importing them to my LMS. I will not be adding any grades from iClicker Cloud to my LMS. I am using iClicker Cloud for Attendance only (no polling or quizzing). ... View more

Starting each of your classes with an iClicker entrance ticket helps settle your students into class and frame their brains for learning. An entrance ticket is simply an open-ended iClicker question you ask students at the start of class. We’ve put together a deck of entrance tickets that can be used in any discipline. Simply ask one of these questions using an iClicker short-answer polling question while you and your students get ready for class. Asking questions like, “What was most memorable about our last class meeting?” doesn’t take much effort on your part, but it can have a large impact on your students. These open-ended questions encourage your students to think back and access memories of prior learning experiences, uniquely framing their brains for new learning experiences. Other questions can encourage your students to think about projects outside of class or upcoming exams. The results of these polls will also give you a unique running insight into what your students are learning, remembering and where they may need additional guidance. Habitually using entrance tickets will also help your students check into iClicker and ensure they are counted as present with iClicker Attendance. Lastly, try and end your class with an iClicker Exit Poll to easily bookend your classes with iClicker. With an iClicker Exit Poll, students are asked to rate their understanding of the day’s class. They also are able to ask if there is anything that they would like explained further. And bonus-- adding both of these activities to your lesson plans shouldn’t take away from your time with your students. ... View more

Thursday, January 20, 2021, at 2:00 PM ET iClicker can be a breath of fresh air at the start of a new year. In this webinar, you'll have a chance to see iClicker in action. We’ll review what’s new with iClicker, and also discuss ways you can use iClicker in your classroom, whether it’s a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom or a hybrid approach. Lastly, we'll have some pedagogical iClicker activity ideas you can use with your students right away. Register for the Webinar Here! Register ... View more

In a meta-analysis of 225 studies that spanned various class sizes, course levels, disciplines, and pedagogy, our researchers found that active learning has a positive income on student performance. Our research also identified common barriers among professors to implementing these active learning strategies, which we sought to ameliorate in the development of our classroom tools: Achieve & iClicker. Read on to learn more about the research behind positive outcomes in active learning classrooms as well as how to implement active learning techniques in your classroom. Download: Research-Backed Strategies for Implementing Active Learning For Better Student Engagement ... View more

As this term draws to a close, you may be looking backward to see what worked and what needs work for next term. Here are some ways you can use iClicker to gather feedback from your students and ways you can use the iClicker data you’ve already gathered to reflect on your lesson plans: 1. Use iClicker Assignments to ask students for course feedback You can easily ask your students for feedback by creating an iClicker Assignment and asking students to respond, perhaps as an extra credit assignment. You can allow students to respond with short answer for detailed feedback, though you’ll want to remind students that their feedback is not anonymous. We’ve created a PDF of questions you can use to gather your students’ ideas. 2. Use iClicker Anonymous polling questions for informal course evaluations You may also want to “take the pulse” of your class in your last class meetings by using our Anonymous question mode to get some frank feedback from your students. Using multiple-choice questions will keep students focused and make feedback collection quick. We’ve created a deck of iClicker questions you can ask your students in order to get some quick and easy feedback. 3. Review your iClicker activity, looking for trends and patterns You don’t have to do a fancy deep-dive into your data to learn a few things from your iClicker trends. Was attendance set to autorun? If so, you can look over your attendance data to look for your days of lowest and highest attendance. If you use iClicker polling regularly, you can look and see if polling has had any impacts on your attendance rates. You should also consider how much feedback you’re giving students and how difficult your questions are. Consider this activity along with a look back at your larger lesson plans to see areas where iClicker could be an even more dynamic tool in your classroom.   ... View more

Colleges and universities know that winter traditions bring a sense of literally sophomoric fun to the season. Explore some wild winter traditions with your students in this month’s trivia deck. Access the Trivia Deck ... View more

On-Demand In this session, delivered by Tarleton State University’s (TX) Director of Student Affairs Assessment & Strategic Initiatives, Dr. Elizabeth Wallace, participants explored how orientation program assessments aligned to NODA standards and competencies provided TSU’s orientation department to take an immediate deep dive into their online and hybrid orientation experiences to examine by session and population, how well their quick program pivots were meeting the needs of their students and families. Watch to explore how to use easily-delivered analytics to manage and evaluate your orientation program amid significant changes in the future whether it’s massive enrollment growth, NCAA division changes, or yes, a global pandemic. View the Recording Here! View the Recording ... View more

On-Demand Calling all English professors! Check out this demonstration on how Achieve, our course management system, and iClicker work together. Achieve is proven to increase student performance, engage students both inside and outside of class, and it's designed for students of all levels. Achieve includes special active learning resources for English professors. Check out this tour of the Achieve environment and learn ways you can use iClicker and Achieve in your English classroom. View the Recording Here! View the Recording! ... View more

Texas Christian University school logo   Texas Christian University's  (TCU) School of Nursing has been awarded the 2021 Assessment and Impact Award for Nursing Education for significant improvement in their survey scores related to overall student satisfaction. Their program has implemented several initiatives driven by student feedback, including a connection culture student mentoring program, a health & wellness initiative to support self-care habits, and high-touch weekly interactions by faculty with students who are struggling academically. ... View more

University of South Florida school seal   The University of South Florida's (USF) School of Nursing has been awarded the 2021 Assessment and Impact Award for Nursing Education for high performance  in learning outcomes related to professional values. Their nursing program recently made data-informed changes to their nursing curriculum to better mirror core competencies in the profession. They also added a new professional nursing course to emphasize professional values and introduced civility training into their program based on student feedback.  ... View more

Southern Utah University school seal   Southern Utah University's (SUU) School of Nursing  has been awarded the 2021 Assessment and Impact Award for Nursing Education for high survey scores related to overall student satisfaction. Their program recently made improvements to their advising experience by including open advising meetings. Their program also implemented a portfolio initiative prior to graduation that not only helps students reflect on their educational experiences but also helps them get jobs before graduation and they also recently acquired new technology to support student learning.  ... View more

For the third year, Skyfactor Benchworks is recognizing nursing programs that foster data-driven cultures for  continuous improvement, with the Assessment and Impact Award for Nursing Education.  The Assessment and Impact Award for Nursing Education was established three years ago to recognize colleges that have successfully used data to analyze and make changes to better their undergraduate nursing programs. Previous winners were Bloomfield College, Colorado Technical University, Montclair State University, Roman University, Seton Hall University, and University of Scranton. Even amid massive educational changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's award winners delivered exceptional educational experiences. For example:   Southern Utah University for High Performance: Overall Satisfaction Texas Christian University for Improvement: Overall Satisfaction University of South Florida for High Performance: Learning, Professional Values  As in prior years, award winners are selected through a careful analysis of multiple years of data from the AACN/Benchworks Undergraduate Nursing Exit Assessment. The Skyfactor Benchworks Analytics and Research Team first conducts a quantitative analysis and review of applications, followed by interviews with finalists to learn about improvements in their nursing programs. Those applications and interview notes are then blind reviewed and evaluated on a rubric by an external panel of experts in the nursing education profession.  Please  drop a comment below  to congratulate this year's Assessment & Impact Award Winners! ## Benchworks assessments are the most widely used programs in nursing education. Benchworks has partnered with the Association of American Colleges of Nursing (AACN) for two decades to offer benchmarking assessments that empower nursing administrators to better understand the program components that most significantly impact these important stakeholders. The various AACN/Benchworks Nursing assessments are used by more than 250 nursing programs each year, and is one of more than 50 different assessments from Benchworks on topics important to college success, including housing, orientation, and student affairs and service. The survey includes questions about student happiness, safety, diversity and inclusion, facilities, costs, sense of community, and time management, among others. ... View more

On-Demand Calling all chemistry professors! Check out our demonstration on how Achieve, our course management system, and iClicker work together. Achieve is proven to increase student performance, engage students both inside and outside of class, and it's designed for students of all levels. Achieve includes special active learning resources for chemistry professors. Check out the tour of the Achieve environment and learn ways you can use iClicker and Achieve in your chemistry classroom. View the Recording Here! View the recording! ... View more