Category: Student Response System: Clickers

Update Required to PointSolutions Software Our current clicker vendor has released an update to the PointSolutions PC software that fixes a major issue that prevents users on our campus from […]

Want to poll your students without using PowerPoint? PointSolutions Anywhere Polling is the option within PointSolutions that can be used over the top of any other program.  

In order to see your new courses each semester in PointSolutions, you must first connect them in your PointSolutions Account.

If you require students to use clickers in your classroom, you will need a receiver to collect the students’ data.

At times it may be necessary for an instructor to share their participant list from PointSolutions with someone else.  In order to do that, it must first be exported.

In the PointSolutions software, each class roster is called a course. A course is a list of participant names, User IDs, Device IDs, and other custom categories. The use of a course allows for detailed reporting on each participant from a session. This allows the instructor to automatically create a list of students based on the information from Blackboard rather than having to add each student individually. With TurningPoint 8, the software automatically updates participants for you each night at midnight and then syncs them the next time you open the software.

Some classes require the use of student response devices, often called clickers. Clickers are handheld devices that enable instructors to pose questions to students and immediately collect and view the responses of the entire class. They are often used to give quizzes, take polls, open discussions, and take attendance.

PointSolutions allows instructors to upload their clicker scores directly into the Grade Center of a Blackboard course.

To prevent signal interference, individual classrooms on campus have been assigned unique clicker channels. Be sure to use the right channel for your classroom to avoid problems.

It may sometimes be necessary to manually edit a student’s clicker points for a certain class day. This could be because they forgot their clicker, and you allowed them to take their quiz on paper, or because of some other set of extenuating circumstances. It’s important to manually edit these scores within the TurningPoint software itself as opposed to inside of Blackboard to prevent the changes you make from being overwritten.

PointSolutions Mobile is an app for iPhones, iPads, and Android devices that can also be accessed by a web browser. Instructors have the option to allow students to use the PointSolutions Mobile app in place of a clicker in classrooms where there is sufficient Wi-Fi coverage.  

While the Mac and PC versions of TurningPoint are very similar, there are a few little quirks you need to know if you will be creating your presentation on Mac and then presenting it on a PC.