Friday, April 2, 2021 @ 2:00 PM Ah, 2021. While not exactly 2020, you’ve still brought quiet online sessions, videoless black boxes and a looming fear of seeing those first test scores. And even for those not teaching online, fostering close engagement in person - 6 feet apart - is still a struggle. Enter iClicker and a heavy dose of instructor-approved active learning techniques. Join Kathy Roberts, iClicker Engagement Consultant, former institutional admin and all-around technology & active learning enthusiast, as she walks you through course activities that are easy to implement & will help you meet your 2021 course goals, whether your course is online, in-person or hybrid. Come ready to turn your video on, share with your colleagues in breakout rooms, and leave those memories of 2020 behind. Register Here! Register Here! ... View more

Skyfactor and Macmillan Learning are delighted to announce that our very own Senior Director of Analytics & Research, Sherry Woosley, has received the Corporate Friend Award for the 2021 ACUHO-I Awards! The ACUHO-I Awards  highlight the service and accomplishments of professionals who have worked to strengthen the Association and the campus housing profession as a whole. Congratulations, Sherry! Click here to learn more about Sherry Click here to learn more about the ACUHO-I Awards ... View more

Our 2021 FYE Conference presentation, 'Improve Student Success in the Age of COVID-19 and Beyond', presented by Sherry Woosley, Ph.D., Amanda Shaffer, James Mantooth, Ph.D. highlighted easy-to-implement retention tools designed to work fast and light with respect to short timelines and small budgets - specifically, how short, research-based retention surveys can be used to improve student success. The session featured concrete implementation tips from The University of Tennessee, Martin, who began using the tools in the midst of COVID-19.  ... View more

On-Demand It’s clear from instructor feedback over the past year: there are too many technology options for class and there’s too little time to implement them. We totally agree. Instructors need - now, more than ever - technology that is simple to start up, tools that are flexible to work across course formats, and solutions that are actually effective for students. To that end, Dr. Matt Evans, active learning veteran and Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, has shared his criteria in selecting technology that helps him accomplish his course goals and do so efficiently. Matt specifically covered how he has used active learning software, iClicker, to meet a number of different needs in and out of the classroom. View Recording! View Recording! ... View more

Thursday, March 11, 2021 @ 2:00 PM Exams are on their way and your students are spending lots of time and energy studying using methods that may or may not actually help them. With iClicker Cloud, your in-class polling questions can instantly become study materials that your students can access outside of class. In this webinar, we demonstrated how to create effective study materials in iClicker Cloud that students can bookmark and turn into flashcards or practice tests with the Study Tools feature in the iClicker student app. We also discussed best practices around iClicker Cloud question construction and session maintenance. View the Recording! View the Recording! ... View more

Tuesday, February 23, 2021 @ 1:00 PM Strategies for improving student success don’t have to be a mystery, even during COVID-19. You just need the right tools and intentional strategies. Join us as we introduce short, research-based surveys that are ideal tools for easy and frequent check-ins with students. The conversation will include a discussion from a student success professional of best practices for pairing surveys with interventions. These surveys and strategies work for both in-person and virtual environments, so they’ll apply during and after COVID-19. View the Recording! View the recording! ... View more

By default, every Polling activity starts with the question type set to Multiple Choice, but you can change the question type before starting each poll. This article covers all of our question types: Multiple Choice Multiple Answer Short Answer Numeric Target Anonymous Use the drop-down menu on the iClicker toolbar to choose your desired question type from the list. Learn more about running polls and viewing and grading results in class. Multiple Choice Students can respond with: iClicker student app, iClicker 2 remote, iClicker+ remote Students are able to select a single letter response A through E. While students can only select one response, you can select multiple responses as correct when grading.               Student View                                                   Instructor View     Multiple Answer Students can respond with: iClicker student app, iClicker 2 remote Multiple Answer polls require students to evaluate the correctness or incorrectness of each possible response instead of simply hunting for one ‘best’ answer. Students are able to select multiple letter responses A through E. Once you grade a Multiple Answer question, you can select the Responses view on the Results chart to see how many responses were Correct, Partially Correct, or Incorrect. You can expand each category to view the individual responses and counts.             Student View                                                    Instructor View      Short Answer Students can respond with: iClicker student app, iClicker 2 remote Short Answer allows you to pose open-ended questions. Students using the iClicker student app can respond with up to 140 characters, including punctuation and most symbols. Students responding with iClicker 2 remotes are limited to the device maximum of 16 characters. Students with iClicker+ remotes cannot respond to short answer questions. In the Results chart, identical responses are grouped together (grouping is not case-sensitive). If you want to quickly mark all answers correct, click on the three dots next to the question number and select Mark All Correct. If you select multiple correct answers, you can select the star icon next to the "best" response, which is also displayed as the correct answer in students' iClicker student app accounts. If none of your students submitted the answer you were looking for, you can enter your desired response into the Other field at the bottom of the grading panel.              Student View                                                    Instructor View    You can also choose to display submitted answers as a Word Cloud.   Numeric Students can respond with: iClicker student app, iClicker 2 remote Numeric questions allow students to respond with open-ended numeric values and support scientific notation and exponents. Students using the iClicker student app or an iClicker 2 remote can respond with up to eight digits plus a decimal point. Students with iClicker+ remotes cannot respond to numeric questions. Entries are grouped by value–for example, 5000, 5000.00, and 5E3 would group together. If you want to quickly mark all answers correct, click on the three dots next to the question number and select Mark All Correct. If you select multiple correct answers, you can select the star icon next to the "best" response, which is also displayed as the correct answer in students' iClicker student app accounts. If none of your students submitted the answer you were looking for, you can enter your desired response into the Other field at the bottom of the grading panel.              Student View                                                      Instructor View   Target Students can respond with: iClicker student app This question type allows instructors to ask questions by sending an image to students (e.g., an image on a lecture slide, an image in your web browser, or even a video you've paused). Students answer the target question by clicking or tapping on the image using their laptops or smart devices. Target questions are ideal in disciplines where visual understanding is required. Students must use the iClicker student app on a mobile device or laptop to participate, as this question type is not available for use with iClicker remotes. Learn more about target questions.             Student View                                                      Instructor View   Anonymous You can ask any of the question types above in Anonymous mode. This allows you to ask sensitive questions that students might not feel comfortable answering if their responses could be traced to their identity. To switch your poll to Anonymous mode, select the menu icon on the iClicker toolbar and turn Anonymous on.  This will change the iClicker tollbar to a dark gray color to indicate you are in Anonymous mode. Your polls will remain anonymous until you turn off Anonymous mode.  You cannot select correct answers for Anonymous questions, so the student response on the Results chart will be grayed out and not clickable. Although students cannot receive Performance points for their responses, they can still receive Participation points for Anonymous responses. Learn more about scoring settings for Polling.             Student view                                              Instructor View           ... View more

It’s a new term, which means a whole new crop of students to get to know. With the sudden rise in virtual and hybrid classes, it’s more important than ever to foster a sense of community among your students and encourage peer interaction. Luckily, iClicker’s Polling and Assignments features can help you and your students get acquainted with one another, even if you’re teaching remotely via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. We’ve put together some examples of fun, low-stakes iClicker questions you can use as icebreakers, whether your term is just beginning or you’re looking to take the pulse of your class at any time. ... View more

Thursday, January 14, 2021 @ 1:00 PM In a typical year, students who struggle academically may find themselves on academic probation. In spring 2021, with complications brought about by COVID-19, it is likely that you will have a much larger and more diverse population of students who did not cope well as course delivery shifted to online, hybrid, or socially-distanced formats. Effectively identifying and supporting these students will take extra planning and effort. Join us as we talk about a new short survey that can be used in the spring to identify students' specific academic needs and as we examine practical adjustments that must be made to your academic probation practices and policies. View the Recording! View the Recording! ... View more

1. Keep Polling Low-Stakes, High-Interest Polling should give a jolt of energy to your classes. Keeping polling a low-stakes part of students’ grades keeps polling a fun, game-like part of your class while reducing the incentive to cheat. When students find your polling questions compelling, they are more likely to attend class regularly and they are more likely to use iClicker as a study tool outside of class.*   *Jeff Bergin and Lisa Ferrara, (2019, April 1).How Student Attendance Can Improve Institutional Outcomes. EDUCAUSE Review,. Retrieved from https://er.educause.edu/blogs/sponsored/2019/4/how-student-attendance-can-improve-institutional-outcomes   2. Challenging Questions Should Follow Challenging Concepts Following tough concepts with easy polling questions seems like a harmless way to encourage students, but research shows the opposite to be true.* When an easy polling question follows a challenging concept, students assume they have mastered the concept when they get an easy question right. Besides, how do you like playing a game that’s too easy? Challenging questions keep students engaged and increase the “game” quality of your class, making for stickier, more impactful learning. *Amy M. Shapiro, Judith Sims-Knight, Grant V. O'Rielly, Paul Capaldo, Teal Pedlow, Leamarie Gordon, Kristina Monteiro, (2017). Clickers can promote fact retention but impede conceptual understanding: The effect of the interaction between clicker use and pedagogy on learning. Computers & Education, 111, 44–59. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131517300726   3. Include Tempting Wrong Answers What kind of misconceptions trip your students up again and again? Include common errors in your multiple choice response options so you can address those misconceptions head on.* When students pick the incorrect question en masse, you will have a highly engaged audience when you challenge directly what they thought they knew. *The Teaching Center at Washington University in St. Louis. Asking Questions to Improve Learning. Retrieved from https://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/resources/teaching-methods/participation/asking-questions-to-improve-learning   4. Incorporate Open-Ended Questions Multiple choice questions are the most popular type of polling question, but open-ended questions can have a place in your lesson plan as well. Consider having a short answer poll open during lecture, videos, student presentations, or any class time where students need to let you know their questions or concerns in a discreet way.* *Dan Levy, Josh Yardley, and Richard Zeckhauser. Working Paper. Getting an Honest Answer: Clickers in the Classroom HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series, RWP15-071. Retrieved from https://scholar.harvard.edu/danlevy/publications/getting-honest-answer-clickers-classroom   5. Anticipate Polling Surprises Your iClicker polling sessions have the power to revolutionize your learning sessions. Low-stakes feedback is as much for you the instructor as it is for your students.* Remember that iClicker Cloud allows you to ask questions on the fly, ask questions more than once, and compare polling results windows. You can ask one polling question multiple times in the same class, revealing to you how students’ understanding grows and changes. *Schwartz, K. (2014, January 6). The Importance of Low-Stakes Student Feedback. Retrieved from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/33230/the-importance-of-low-stakes-student-feedback ... View more

iClicker’s flexibility empowers instructors to start engaging students with polling questions right away—and there’s no limit to the tools you use to author your polling questions. You can create questions in your preferred presentation software, such as PowerPoint or Google Slides, or in a word-processing document. You can also verbally ask questions on the fly, use publisher-provided clicker questions, or reuse polling questions you’ve previously asked via other response systems. Just make sure you remove any items from your slides that you don’t want students to see, such as correct answers. This blog post will walk you through the process of creating a basic multiple choice iClicker question, our most popular question type and the default each time you start a new polling activity, with PowerPoint, one of the authoring tools our instructors are most likely to use. You’ll also see how polling questions will appear to students in the iClicker student app. Once you master the multiple choice question, read our pedagogical best practices and check out our more advanced polling question types. Need help creating questions for Assignments? The process is very similar—check out our support article on building Assignments! Step 1: Type Your Question on a PowerPoint Slide Launch PowerPoint, navigate to your existing lecture presentation or a new presentation, and add a new blank slide. Add a text box and type your question using your preferred formatting and style.   Step 2: Enter the Answer Choices Next, you’ll enter up to five answer choices, A through E. Note: You can provide fewer than five answer choices, as shown in the image below. You can also enter only A and B answer choices for true/false or yes/no questions. Just keep in mind that students always see the A through E answer choices on their devices for multiple choice questions, as shown in the final image of our blog post below.   Step 3: Add an iClicker Callout (Optional) The next step is completely optional, but many veteran iClicker instructors find it helpful to add an iClicker image or text callout to each of their question slides. When you get to a question slide in lecture, it will help remind students to open up their iClicker student apps and get ready to participate. We added an “in-class question” callout with the iClicker student app logo at the top of our sample question slide below.   Step 4: Start Your Poll in iClicker Cloud The image below shows our finished multiple choice sample question with A through D answer choices in PowerPoint. Aside from including a question and answer choices, there is nothing else you have to add to a slide to make it an iClicker question. Feel free to add images (we included art from the textbook) or change the slide design as you wish. Just remember not to include the correct answer or anything else you don’t want students to see, as they will receive a screenshot of your entire computer’s screen. Once you start a class session in iClicker Cloud, the iClicker toolbar will float on top of your lecture content throughout class, as shown in the image below. Each time you click the green play button, the toolbar takes a snapshot of your entire screen at that moment and sends that screenshot as a polling question to students’ devices. You may need to move other toolbars and menus out of the way if you’re using video conferencing software, such as Zoom, for a virtual class. And if you want to hide the computer dock at the bottom of your screen, you can enter into presenter view (but if you forget to, that’s okay, too—as you can see in our example, the question is still clearly visible to students). Learn more about running polls with iClicker Cloud.   Student View of an iClicker Polling Question Here’s what our sample multiple choice question looks like on students’ devices in the iClicker student app. Students see the screenshot of everything that was on your screen when you clicked the green play button. In this example, that includes the dock at the bottom of the instructor’s screen, too, since we were not in presenter view. The iClicker toolbar should not appear in screenshots. Underneath the question screenshot, students see the A through E answer choices. The response option for students will automatically update if you select other polling question types (e.g., a text box for short answer or a clickable image for a target question). Learn more about how students participate in polls with the iClicker student app         ... View more

We’ve put together onboarding resources you can download, customize, and share with your students to help them register properly for your iClicker course and get ready to participate in your iClicker activities. Syllabus Templates These templates include language you can copy and paste into your course syllabus document or Learning Management System. The highlighted sections of text are intended to be customized based on how exactly you will be using iClicker in your course. Because the syllabus templates contain links to helpful articles on our support website, we recommend sharing this information with your students virtually so they can easily access those links. First Day of Class Slides Our first day of class slide decks provides student registration information in a more visual format. These slides are intended to be customized based on how exactly you will be using iClicker in your course. You can present the slides to your students during class time at the start of the term, or post them online to walk students through the steps they must take to properly register for your iClicker course. These resources differ based on whether you are using the iClicker Cloud or iClicker Classic instructor software, whether you are utilizing a grade sync option in your course, or whether you are teaching a virtual class. Choose the scenario that is most relevant to your course: iClicker Cloud I am using iClicker Cloud for a virtual class. I am integrating iClicker Cloud with Achieve. I am integrating iClicker Cloud with my LMS (requires prior setup by a campus administrator). I am downloading grades from iClicker Cloud and manually importing them to my LMS. I am using iClicker Cloud only for Attendance (no Polling or Quizzing). iClicker Classic I am using iClicker Classic for a virtual class. I am integrating iClicker Classic with my LMS (requires prior set-up by a campus administrator). I am downloading grades from iClicker Classic and manually importing them to my LMS. ... View more

Celebrate the end of the year with our holiday trivia deck! These trivia questions give students a chance to have a little fun before getting to the serious work of prepping for finals. You can find the answer key below. Answer Key: D. All of the Above Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/2/140204-melt-snow-ice-salt-beet-juice-pickle-brine/ E. Mexico Source: https://www.ambius.com/blog/the-long-strange-tale-of-the-poinsettia-in-christmas-lore/ B. Kentucky Fried Chicken Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-kfc-became-a-christmas-tradition-in-japan-2016-12 E. Times Gone By Source: https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/12/world/new-years-fast-facts/index.html E. 82% Source: https://www.christmastreeassociation.org/seventy-seven-percent-of-us-households-will-celebrate-this-holiday-season-with-a-christmas-tree/ ... View more

iClicker is hard at work devising a solution to reduce the time and effort required for students to first join your live session of class, and we are seeking faculty volunteers to test this new feature in January 2021. The “quick join” feature we’re working on will allow you to access and share a unique code for each of your iClicker Cloud courses. Students can use this code to be added directly to the course upon creating an account or signing in to the iClicker student app. Our goal with this feature is to enable students to join the first live session of your course—whether in person or virtually—in less than a minute, minimizing the time spent in those first days of class onboarding students to iClicker. If you are interested in being a part of this beta test group, please complete the following questionnaire. ... View more

Tuesday, December 08, 2020 @ 2:00 PM ET If there's anything we've learned from 2020, it's that keeping students engaged—wherever class is—is more important than ever before. So we're here to help you hit it out of the park in 2021! Join us for a one-stop-shop webinar to get ready to bring active learning to your course this spring semester. iClicker co-founder and Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois, Mats Selen, will be joining to talk about the history of iClicker's unique and simple technology and how it has evolved to fit any classroom, synchronous or asynchronous. Participants will have hands-on time with iClicker as well as group Q&A sessions to brainstorm or troubleshoot their playbooks for spring. So whether you're a brand new rookie or a hall of fame veteran with iClicker, join us to practice and prepare for 2021!   View Recording! VIEW RECORDING ... View more