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Using i>clicker at UO -- notes for instructors

an iclicker remoteAre you interested in using personal response systems (clickers) in a course you'll be teaching next term? Here are some of the things to do to get started. This is a brief summary for faculty members. See the i>clicker user's manual for more information.

If you're already familiar with i>clickers, you might want to visit our i>clicker news and updates page.

Important note: As of 8 Jan 2012 this page has not yet been fully updated for winter 2012.  Please see this handout instead:

Using Blackboard and i>clicker at UO -- winter 2012


How do I use iClicker webClicker at UO --  winter 2012


Using Blackboard and i>clicker with Integrate option

Background

First, a bit of orientation. The UO currently recommends that faculty who want to use clickers adopt "i>clicker", a product originally developed at the University of Illinois and now available commercially. We expect that individual students will buy their own clickers ("remotes"), typically from the Duck Store. The UO provides instructors with base stations ("receivers"), plus training and technical support. The i>clicker system is very easy to use, inexpensive, and integrates well with other UO systems such as Blackboard.  In its first term at UO, fall 2008, it was used by more than 4100 students.

Getting Started

Once you've decided to use clickers you'll need to do several things:

  1. Order clickers for your students to purchase. We treat clickers just like textbooks. You'll want to place an order at the bookstore a month or more before the start of the term so your students can buy the clickers. The Duck Store (UO Bookstore) is well organized to handle i>clicker orders. As of December 2010 they sell the clickers for $36.00 new or $26 used, and will buy them back from students for $18. Students can use the same clicker in multiple courses.
  2. Tell your students your plans. You'll also want to make sure that your syllabus has appropriate instructions for the students to buy their own i>clicker remotes. And you'll need to make plans for registering the students' clickers (see below) -- typically through a Blackboard-based registration assignment.
  3. Check out an "instructor kit." You'll need an "instructor kit" to take to class when you use clickers. Faculty planning to use clickers can borrow the kit for a term loan from the CMET (formerly Media Services; located on the ground floor of Knight Library) front desk. You'll get a base station (receiver), two clickers (remotes), plus software on a flash drive. You'll need to plug the base station into your laptop computer in class.
  4. Copy and update the software. Instructor kits contain a copy of the software (for both PC and Mac) on a USB flash drive.  If you use your own laptop in class you should copy the software to your hard disk.  If you use a shared computer you'll need your own copy of the software, probably on a flash drive.  As of January 2012 we recommend that all UO instructors use i>Clicker version 5.5.x.
  5. Get training on using the hardware and software. It's really easy -- one of the reasons we've standardized on i>clicker is that it's a simpler and more robust system than many of the competitors. Visit CMET Consulting for assistance.

Updating your software

The flash drive provided with instructor kits may not have the most recent i>clicker software.  For winter 2012, we recommend that everyone use the most recent version of i>Clicker version 5.5 software, without the "CMS Integrate" module that we have been distributing for the past 2 terms.

Check the version number of your clicker software (on a Mac, right-click i>Clicker.app; on a PC, look at iclicker.exe).

  • if your version is 5.4.anything or 5.5.anything, then simply run the included "webupdate" program to make sure your software is up to date
  • if your version is 5.3 or earlier, then you have very old software and need to replace it.  Please contact CMET Consulting for assistance
  • if your version is 6.1 or later, then you are running a very new version of the software, one that we don't currently recommend but that generally works.  Update it using the webupdate program, and don't be surprised if it has a few problems at UO.  Although we don't yet recommend that 5.5 users upgrade to it, we think we can support you with it if you decide to live on the leading edge.

If your software version contains the program "cms integrate wizard.exe" or "cms integrate wizard.app" you should delete that file.

You can get the current 5.5.x version of the i>Clicker software direct from http://www.iclicker.com/support/downloads/

Using clickers to ask questions in class

This is the easy part. Plug your base station into your Mac or PC in the classroom. Run the i>clicker software application, which puts up a floating window on your screen. Click "start session" to convert that big window into a small floating toolbar.  Display a multiple-choice question for your students. On the iClicker toolbar click "Start". After you've given the students time to respond, click "Stop". Now click "Display" to have i>clicker show a graph of your students' responses.

When your students answer questions, the i>Clicker software records the clicker numbers and corresponding answers.

Clickers are a wonderful way to engage your students and get them to participate, particularly in a large lecture course.  Don't just use them to take attendance -- ask questions (perhaps one every 5 or 10 minutes during lecture) that require that your students vote.  You may want to reward them for choosing the correct answer (if there is one), or maybe you'll simply find it useful to wake them up and engage them in thinking and actively responding.  For lots of good ideas on how clickers can be used effectively, contact the Teaching Effectiveness Program or visit their "Improving Lectures with Technology" web page.

Almost everyone uses i>clickers for graded exercises (credit for class participation, or perhaps low-stakes in-class quizzes). To do so, you'll need to load the iClicker software with a class roster and register your students' clicker numbers in it. Once you've registered your student's clicker numbers the software can then interpret the clicker numbers and match them up with students.

Using blackboard and registering your students

i>clicker records student responses by clicker number, but to be useful the software needs to be able to map those clicker numbers to people, which means you need to "register" your students and their clickers.  There are several ways to register students (roll call registration, manual assignment, etc.), but the easiest is to use Blackboard registration. 

For detailed instructions on registering your students and uploading grades to blackboard, see:

Using blackboard and i>clicker at UO -- winter 2012

A brief summary of some critical information from that file:
  1. Using the i>clicker application, click Preferences > Registration.  Set CMS to Blackboard {Ver 8.0 and above} and the security code to "SQLhttp://libweb.uoregon.edu/dc/blackboard/iclicker?c=". 
  2. Download a copy of your Blackboard class roster: Go to Grade Center and click "Work Offline->Download". Download User Information Only, use Delimiter type:Comma, and include hidden information. You'll get a file with a long name such as gc_200901.12345_fullgc_2009-09-14-14-27-45.csv. Move it to your appropriate Classes subfolder in your i>clicker software folder and rename it to gb_export.csv.
  3. Request that an appropriate entry be added to your blackboard site, then give your students the assignment of registering their clickers using it.  Students who register a clicker for one course do not need to do so for other courses that term. [important note: this is not the same as the registration system at iclicker.com, which UO people should not use]
  4. After you've used i>Clicker at least once in class, use the "Synchronize Web Registration" in i>grader to download the roster (click "Yes" in answer to the popup window question).  You will be asked for your blackboard password and course, since Integrate will log in to blackboard on your behalf to transfer data.
  5. Download a new roster and do another synchronization after the end of DROP/ADD.  Periodically use the "Synchronize Web Registration" in i>grader to download clicker ID registration information and match clicker numbers with student usernames.

You can also register clickers for individual students in your course using the i>clicker program.  Click "loan/register clickers".   i>clicker also has a "roll call registration" feature that can be used in small classes but takes too much time in large ones.

Now proceed to use clickers. Every few days you may want to upload clicker grades back into Blackboard so your students can see how they are doing.  Do so by exporting a CSV file from i>grader then uploading and importing it into the Grade Center.  Bug alert: you can only upload about 830 grades in a single transaction.  As part of the upload process Blackboard will ask you what columns in the CSV file you want to import; if you have a large course, select only a single column, then repeat the upload to import additional columns. Refer to this FAQ for more information.

Additional Notes

Common problems

Some faculty members report problems synchronizing their class rosters and getting students matched with their clicker numbers.  If your iGrader window does not show student names for your class, then you have not yet successfully downloaded your class roster; see above for instructions.  If your iGrader window shows large numbers of red (unmatched) clicker numbers and also large numbers of red (unmatched) student names, then you need to synchronize your web registrations (see above).

If you have a small number of unmatched clickers and names, it is probably because some of your students have failed to register on your blackboard site.

New versions

We are currently evaluating i>clicker software version 6.1 with Integrate, and hope to be able to support that software version by winter 2012.

i>Clicker recently introduced a new model of clicker, the "i>clicker2".  That version is not supported at UO, If you are interested in the additional functionality and complexity of that new model, contact JQ Johnson to discuss participating in a beta test during 2012.

Documentation and Software

We have a small amount of local documentation:

A download of our standard clicker software distribution is also available as a ZIP file (40 MB):

We recommend using the latest version of 5.5.X from the iClicker downloads page.
If you would really like to be cutting edge you may try the latest version of 6.1.
Older (mostly outdated) UO materials include:

There's a lot of material available on line at http://www.iclicker.com. Some of the material there includes:

In addition, our on-campus support consists of

  • CMET (aka Media Services), who check out the instructor hardware, and can provide assistance with it and other classroom technologies.
  • CMET Consulting, who can provide assistance using the software, especially Blackboard integration. Visit Knight 19, or call 6-1942. In addition to one on one tutoring, we can schedule a workshop on demand if there is a group of faculty interested in using i>clicker with resources.
  • Our trouble-ticketing system.  Send email requests for assistance to clicker-help@ithelp.uoregon.edu.  Requests sent to blackboard@ithelp.uoregon.edu will also be answered, but may incur an extra day of delay in routing the request to the right person.
  • Teaching Effectiveness Program, who are the people to turn to for advice on how to use clickers most effectively in teaching.  TEP has several handouts on clickers:
  • the Knight Library Computer Help Desk, Duck Store (UO Bookstore), and the IS Help Desk, all of whom can provide limited (but we think adequate) support for students.
  • the community of other faculty adopters. Our estimate for fall 2011 is that i>clickers were used by about 50 faculty in 60 courses, and by more than 4000 students.
  • a mailing list for interested faculty and staff.  Subscribe by sending email to majordomo@lists.uoregon.edu with a message containing the single line:
    subscribe clickers

Maintained by: JQ Johnson, jqj@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 04/24/2012