Adding iClicker questions to your lecture deck is an easy process but coming up with content can be challenging. As you work on writing iClicker polling questions, ask yourself the following questions: What higher-order thinking does this iClicker question require? Sometimes we want to know if students simply remember a concept, but we want to use iClicker questions to emphasize skills like analysis and application. Instead of asking a question that only requires a good memory (“What are the three parts of the brain?”), ask questions that require memory as well as higher-order thinking (“What part of Janice’s brain is most active when she reminisces about a walk across a balance beam?”) What wrong conclusions do my students often come to when faced with this kind of question? Identify the common wrong conclusions students come to and include them as tempting wrong answers in your multiple-choice questions. This gives you the opportunity to address misconceptions directly. It also increases the difficulty level of your questions. How many of my students are going to get this iClicker question wrong? A good polling question presents a real challenge to your students. No one likes when a game is too easy! This also creates an opportunity for a Think-Pair-Share activity. Ask your students an iClicker question but don’t reveal the correct answer. Instead, display the results and have students work in pairs to try and convince one another of the correct answer. Ask the same polling question again to see how their responses have shifted. This will give students a chance to learn by doing and you the chance to observe their thinking process. How does this connect to my quizzes and exams? Students find iClicker questions particularly valuable when they can clearly connect their iClicker questions to the questions they’re asked on more formal assessments. Retired assessments can be a great place to find fresh iClicker questions as well. ... View more

Hispanic Heritage Month starts in the US on September 15th and runs to October 15th. What’s the reason for the unique timing? The month-long observation starts on the 15th to correspond with the anniversary of independence in five Central American countries—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. More trivia awaits you and your students in this month’s deck!  Download the Slide Deck Here! ... View more

Many campus LMS admins have recently completed setting up Roster & Grade Sync, our most advanced integration option, which allows instructors to sync their rosters from their LMS for easy student onboarding and sync iClicker grades to their LMS gradebook. Roster & Grade Sync is available for Canvas, Blackboard, and Brightspace by D2L, but some institutions are using a different version of grade sync. Here’s how to figure out if Roster & Grade Sync has been made available to you. From the iClicker Cloud instructor website, navigate to your course and click on Settings, then select the Integrations tab. If Roster & Grade Sync is enabled at your institution, your Integrations settings will look like the image below with your own LMS name and icon and a Connect to... button. Learn more about how to set up Roster & Grade Sync. If, on the other hand, your Integrations settings resemble the image below, with a Grade Sync Integration on/off toggle button, you may still be able to take advantage of an LMS integration (and this applies to all Moodle and Sakai schools). Check with your LMS admin to see if LTI grade sync is enabled. If you’re using LaunchPad, you can also switch the toggle button on and select that option from the drop-down menu, then follow the steps to integrate iClicker with LaunchPad without LMS admin setup. Finally, if you’re using Achieve and already have grade sync set up with your LMS, you can include iClicker scores in the grades that are transferred to your LMS (no admin setup required!). Click the Sync iClicker button in your Achieve gradebook and follow the steps to connect your iClicker course. ... View more

On-Demand For our math and statistics professors, Achieve is our comprehensive course management system that reaches students where they are before, during, and after class. iClicker, the market-leading student engagement system is included as part of that platform, and we’re excited to highlight the ways that you can use iClicker within Achieve to easily implement active learning techniques and track student performance. Join us for tips on engaging students to deepen their math and statistical knowledge, and learn how iClicker and Achieve can deliver new insight into class performance and comprehension. View the Recording Here! View the Recording ... View more

Here’s a pro tip from iClicker veterans that we like to share at the start of each term: practice makes perfect. As an iClicker instructor, there’s no limit to the courses you create for yourself, so we always recommend that new instructors create a practice or sandbox course that is separate from any “official” courses (and not visible to any students). You can also take advantage of the free iClicker instructor subscription to our student app to step through the complete classroom experience from both the instructor and student perspectives. Use our new video with our step-by-step guide to get comfortable running class sessions with yourself (or maybe a colleague!), before going live with your students on the first day of class: Video: How iClicker Works Article: How to Run Practice Sessions in iClicker Cloud As you familiarize yourself with iClicker, our checklists will walk you through everything else you may want to consider as you create your courses for the new academic year, from setting upgrade sync with your Learning Management System to onboarding your students: Checklist: Getting Started with iClicker Cloud Checklist: Using iClicker for Remote Instruction Checklist: Getting Started with iClicker Cloud Attendance-only Courses ... View more

The return to campus is just moments away! We’ve collected our best tried-and-true tips for student onboarding that you’ll want to keep in mind as you welcome students back to the classroom. We’ve also created a deck of icebreaker activities that you can use to get to know your students while they get comfortable with iClicker. Check Out Our Ice-Breaker Deck 1. Message students early (and often!) We’ve created lots of resources that make it easy for you to communicate with your students about how to get ready to use iClicker in your course. These iClicker Cloud Student Registration Overview & Resources include syllabus language and first-day-of-class resources that you can use to set your students up for success. We even have guides for instructors who will be teaching virtually, so be sure to explore! 2. Explain your teaching rationale for using iClicker to your students. Students get more out of iClicker when they know why you’re requiring it in their class. Let students know that iClicker use leads to better classroom engagement, a significant rise in student confidence, and an increase in end-of-class grades. 3. Keep stakes low during your first polling sessions. Students are quick to catch on to how iClicker works on their laptops, tablets or phones. However, the enrollment of your class may shift in the first weeks of class, which can create grading headaches down the line. Students may also need to become familiar with joining the wifi in your classroom, causing them to miss a question or two. Here’s information you can pass along to your students to help them troubleshoot their connection. 4. Using Enhanced Grade Sync? Introducing Roster and Grade Sync! The new Roster and Grade Sync (RGS) is now available for Blackboard, Brightspace, or Canvas once it has been set up by your LMS administrator. With RGS, you can pull your roster into your iClicker Cloud course with no additional linking steps for students. Take a look at our support article on transitioning from iClicker's Enhanced Grade Sync to Roster & Grade Sync for more information. ... View more

On-Demand After more than a year of online and hybrid learning, educators and students alike are eager to engage in person this fall. For many educators, preparing for a 'return to *some* degree of normalcy' entails super-charging' student engagement amid a Fall reality that may see some students attending classes in-person, while others remain online. Join this webinar for tips and tools to maximize student engagement including brief student readiness self-assessments and maximize student input before, during, and after class discussions. View the Recording Here! View the Recording! ... View more

On-Demand It may be the middle of summer but we know you’re thinking about the start of the fall. Maybe it’s been a while since you last used iClicker—never fear, our team is here to get you back up to speed and back in the classroom with iClicker. In this webinar, we’ll review what’s new with iClicker over the last year, from Assignments to Multiple Answer. We’ll also discuss ways you can use iClicker in your classroom, whether it’s a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom or a hybrid approach. View the Recording Here! View the recording! ... View more

On-Demand This webinar will focus on ways you can use iClicker in your economics classroom and how iClicker and our new Achieve platform can work together to make your classes active and impactful. Attend this webinar to learn key active learning strategies, ideas, and best practices as they relate to the economics classroom! Access the Recording Here! VIEW RECORDING ... View more

We’re making things even simpler! Later this summer, the award-winning mobile student response system, iClicker Reef will be renamed the iClicker student app. Why the change?  Multiple surveys and customer interviews showed that the ‘Reef’ brand name can cause confusion for customers who frequently do not associate Reef with iClicker, or do not readily identify Reef as the student mobile app for iClicker. What does the name change mean for me?  For educators: Over the coming weeks we will be updating all of our customer-facing training and support materials to reflect the name change to the iClicker student app. Any links that currently use iClicker Reef will be re-routed to the appropriate webpage.  For students: The directions for how to download the iClicker student mobile app will be updated to reflect the name change. All of this will be provided over the coming weeks in preparation for fall classes.  When will this change occur? The formal switch is scheduled for early-to-mid August 2021. We will continue to update you as we prepare for this change.  Please let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to continuing to deliver simple, flexible, pedagogically-sound solutions for your fall 2021 classes. This new change to the student mobile app naming is one small piece of our efforts.  Click here to connect with a Student Engagement Specialist to discuss how to make your fall classes as engaging as possible ... View more

The temperatures are rising across the country. As you and your students sweat through the term (if you’re lucky enough to be teaching this summer!), consider treating everyone to some fun iClicker questions about ice cream. Check Out the July Trivia Deck ... View more

On-Demand Are you looking for ways to make your class sessions more interactive but unsure where to find the time? Join Natalie Dougall as she shares ways you can easily incorporate iClicker polling activities into your classroom without sacrificing a lot of valuable class time or wildly altering lesson plans you’ve spent years perfecting. Natalie will also outline Macmillan resources instructors can use to easily turn their students from passive observers into active learners. Access the Webinar Here! Access Webinar On-Demand ... View more

We heard you and we are making things even simpler! We’re pleased to announce that by August 2021 iClicker Reef will be renamed the iClicker student app, helping instructors and students alike to more easily identify iClicker’s mobile/web app for students. The logo above will appear on student app login pages. The ISBNs for your student products will remain the same. Over the next few months, we will be updating all of our instructor- and student-facing training and support materials to reflect the name change to the iClicker student app. Any links that currently use iClicker Reef will be re-routed to the appropriate webpage. If you have created any of your own student-facing materials that mention Reef, replacing the Reef name with “the iClicker student app” will make it easier for your students. We will continue to update you as we prepare for this change— let us know if you have any questions in the meantime! Contact Us ... View more

If you're teaching this summer, we have a special Juneteenth trivia deck you can share with your students. Macmillan began recognizing Juneteenth as an official company holiday in 2020, giving employees a day to reflect, recharge and celebrate. Juneteenth Trivia Deck ... View more

We can't believe it’s been one year since we released Assignments! Our newest iClicker activity has taken student engagement to the next level in fully remote, asynchronous courses—but we’re also hearing from instructors who enjoy using Assignments for in-person and hybrid/flex classes. We've been continuously working to improve Assignments over the past year. Here’s what we’ve added recently for instructors using Assignments: Alt Text Support: We added the ability for instructors to enter and edit alt text for assignment question images. Alt text makes Assignments easier for students to use with screen readers. Learn more about best practices for writing alt text. Copy Assignments: We added an option for instructors to copy an already-built assignment. This will be useful for instructors who wish to assess what students have learned via the same set of pre- and post-class questions, and for instructors who wish to use the same assignment in multiple iClicker Cloud courses. Learn more about copying assignments. Gradebook Integration: Assignment scores appear alongside Polling and Quizzing scores in the iClicker Cloud Gradebook. Instructors are able to modify individual student Assignment scores and export or sync Assignment grades to their LMS. Due Times: Instructors can specify both dates and times for when an assignment becomes available and is due. The following Assignments improvements are now available to students: In-Progress Credit: Students automatically receive credit for all work in progress when an assignment closes. They do not need to click the submit button to receive credit for responses already entered before the due date. Mobile Support: Students can complete assignments via the iOS or Android student apps, in addition to the web app. Wondering how to get started with Assignments? Our Learning Science & Insights team developed a set of pre-built prompts that can help students reflect on their learning before, during, and after class, in any academic discipline. Check out our Assignments page to learn more and download sample slide decks to try out with your own students! ... View more