Using blackboard and i>clicker at UO fall 2011

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1 Using blackboard and i>clicker at UO fall 2011 Note: this document is based on one by i>clicker Technical Support, but contains modifications and local information specific to the University of Oregon. The instructions here are believed to be accurate for fall JQ Johnson, 16 Oct This guide contains information for UO instructors related to several i>clicker tasks: A. Getting the i>clicker software... 1 B. Changing i>clicker settings... 1 C. Loading your blackboard roster into i>grader on your PC or Mac... 2 D. Synchronizing student clicker ID registrations (UO web registration)... 3 E. [Optional] Using roll call and manual registration... 5 F. Uploading grades from i>grader into the blackboard Grade Center... 5 A. Getting the i>clicker software You can copy the i>clicker software from the USB drive provided with your base station (on loan from CMET), or can download it from the web. The software version for use at the UO is a customized version of i>clicker with the CMS Integrate add on module. Copy either the "iclicker Win" or "i>clicker mac" folder to the computer you plan to use in the classroom (normally your personal laptop), or to your own flash drive. That folder contains both the i>clicker programs and the data you collect as you run i>clicker in class. B. Changing i>clicker settings 1. First start the i>clicker program from the iclicker Win or i>clicker Mac folder. Choose the course you are working with from your list of i>clicker courses (creating it if necessary). If you add a course to your list, it will create a subfolder in your Classes subfolder in the iclicker directory. To create a new course, click Add Course and enter Course Name (e.g. Psych of Trauma ) and Course Number (e.g. PSY 472 ). 2. From the welcome screen, select Your Settings and Preferences.

2 Using blackboard and i>clicker at UO fall Locate the Registration/Export tab, and verify settings: a. Under Web Registration, enter SQLhttp://libweb.uoregon.edu/dc/blackboard/iclicker?c= b. Under Course Management System, select Blackboard (Ver 8) and above c. At the bottom of the screen, choose Set for Course. 4. You re ready to run your first class session. This is the easy part. Plug your base station into your Mac or PC in the classroom. Run the i>clicker application, which puts up a floating window on your screen. Click "start session" to convert that big window into a small floating toolbar. Put up a slide (PowerPoint, keynote, PDF, or just something you type on the fly) that asks the students a multiple- choice question. On the iclicker toolbar click Start. After you've given the students time to respond, click Stop. You can click Display to have i>clicker show a graph of your students' responses. I>clicker will collect data from your respondents and store it by clicker number, to allow you to upload it to your blackboard Grade Center. Troubleshooting tip: In Keynote 08, make sure that the option is enabled to allow the iclicker box to float on top of your Keynote presentation when you "play" the presentation. In Keynote Preferences > Slideshow, check Allow Expose, Dashboard and others to use screen. C. Loading your blackboard roster into i>grader on your PC or Mac 1. After you ve collected some polling data in class, you can look at it by running i>grader. The first time you do so, it should offer to download your course roster from blackboard. Click Yes to move to the Log in to your CMS screen. 2. On this screen, enter your Duck ID and password, then click Login.

3 Using blackboard and i>clicker at UO fall On the following screen select the blackboard coursesite matching the course for which you are using clickers. The pulldown list shows all coursesites for which you are an Instructor. Click Import Student Roster from CMS. In a large course, this process may take a minute or more, but not 10 minutes. When done, click Exit on the Transfer Roster window. 4. Exit and restart i>grader when instructed to do so. Troubleshooting tip: Behind the scenes, this process downloads your course roster from the Blackboard grade center, creating a file called gb_export.csv in the subfolder for this course. If you open the CSV file you ll see that it includes student last name, student first name, and student Duck ID in columns A to C. D. Synchronizing student clicker ID registrations (UO web registration) Web Synchronization will match the remotes used in your class to usernames based on the Clicker ID numbers your students register on the blackboard site. 1. First, request that the UO Blackboard Administrator add the i>clicker registration form to your blackboard site. Send to blackboard@ithelp.uoregon.edu containing the name of the course. An item similar to the following will be added to your blackboard site, normally in Course Information unless you request that it be placed elsewhere: 2. Instruct your students to visit the blackboard site and complete the above form. They can find their Clicker ID number on the back of the clicker. Troubleshooting tip: Make sure that the students enter their Duck IDs rather than their student ID numbers. You may want to include registration instructions in your syllabus so your students follow the proper registration protocol. Troubleshooting tip: Occasionally a clicker ID is illegible. You can run the ClickerID program to help a student figure out his or her clicker number. Students can also get help from the CMET Front Desk (formerly Media Services, in Knight Library), or the Knight Library Computer Help Desk. 3. After the students have registered their clicker IDs, launch i>grader. You will see your session(s), labeled by date. Names from your roster that have been matched with clicker numbers will show in

4 Using blackboard and i>clicker at UO fall blue on the left. To match names and numbers, click the Synchronize Student Web Registrations button, then click No when asked to Confirm Sync. Please note: before you can use the Web Synchronization feature in i>grader, you must run at least one i>clicker session with your students, and your students need to register their i>clicker remotes online as described in Steps 1 and 2 above. Troubleshooting Tip: If you don t have student names listed, then you have not yet successfully downloaded your roster. Troubleshooting Tip: If you don t see a column of remotes in red on the i>grader main screen, you may not have run a polling session with your students yet. Run a session in i>clicker before attempting the Web Synchronization function. IMPORTANT BUG ALERT: When you click Synchronize you will get a popup window Confirm Sync or Confirm Roster Sync Options. The first time you sync, click Yes, which will verify that your roster has been downloaded but will not actually synchronize. Then repeat the synch process, but click No rather than the more intuitive Yes. Then click Continue and eventually Done. I>Grader will go through the list of all unmatched clicker numbers and check to see if that number is registered to a student in your course. The process may take several minutes. If your students did not register correctly or if there is some ambiguity as to what registration is correct, you will be prompted to accept or ignore the registration. If you aren t sure, we recommend jotting down that user s information and choosing ignore. Then ask the student to register again using the correct information. If a student has already registered a clicker using UO web registration in a different course this term, he or she does not need to do so again. If a clicker is registered to multiple students, only the student in your course will be used. Students who enter incorrect information can simply re- register. However, students do need to register their clickers through blackboard, not for example on the i>clicker corporate web site.

5 Using blackboard and i>clicker at UO fall E. [Optional] Using roll call and manual registration Instead of depending on your students to register their clicker numbers online, you can manually register an individual student s clicker or can conduct a roll call in class and collect clicker numbers. These are sometimes useful approaches for cleaning up special cases or finding stragglers who never got around to registering their clickers on the blackboard site. See the i>clicker users guide for details. F. Uploading grades from i>grader into the blackboard Grade Center 1. After class, when your i>clicker session is complete, open i>grader. To export data from selected sessions, check the box at the top of each column you want to export, next to the session name or date. Then click Export Selected Session(s) as csv file from the main i>grader screen. Or click Export All Sessions if you prefer. We recommend that once you have completed student web registrations you upload one session at a time, typically immediately after class. 2. You ll first get a popup window saying Export Complete as i>grader exports your data to a temporary CSV file. Then you ll get a Confirm Upload window. Click Yes and on the following screens log in to blackboard then select your course and click Export i>clicker scores to CMS. Note: in a large course the upload process may take several minutes, but eventually you will get a popup window stating Data uploaded successfully.. Troubleshooting tip: There is a limit to the number of grades that can be uploaded at a time if you manually upload the csv file to the Blackboard Grade Center instead of using Integrate. If you have a large class and need to upload grades using a csv file, upload only one column at a time. Each session column is uploaded into a separate column in the Grade Center, with the Blackboard column name the same as the i>grader session name (normally the date). You may occasionally want to re- upload a session, for example if more students register their clickers and you want to give them credit for their previous work. If you re- upload the same session the grades will be merged with the existing column in the Grade Center. These columns in the Grade Center are permanent once uploaded; although you can t delete them, you can if needed Edit Column Information to set Include this Column in Grade Center Calculations: Off. For more information on using i>clicker see the website at Additional instructor documentation is available from under Support / User Guides. See especially the i>clicker 5.5 User Guide. Any questions? Send them to clicker- help@ithelp.uoregon.edu or visit CMET Consulting, 19 Knight Library ( ) for assistance.