Plickers Student Response System Tutorial To use Plickers, you need one computer (laptop or desktop) and one mobile device (smartphone, ipad or tablet) First, visit the Plickers website at http://www.plickers.com. You MUST use Chrome not all the parts of the site appear when using Explorer. Click the SignUp button and create an account. Next, download the Plickers app onto your mobile device (phone or tablet). It s available for both Apple and ipad devices, and is free. Once the app is downloaded, log in with the account that you just created on the computer. The first part of the process is done on the computer. Once you re logged into Plickers, there are several tabs in the upper left of the screen. You will visit these areas to set up classes, write questions, and, eventually, show students the questions and track their progress. First, click the Classes tab. Each account contains a default Demo class. You can use this if you aren t concerned with tracking what students individual responses are, and just want to poll the group as a whole. If you want to track students progress, you create classes. Just press the Add new class button to do this. That will open a Basic Class Info box. Complete the required information and press Save. Your newly created class will appear in the Classes tab. Still in the Classes tab, click on a class to view and add students. Just type a student s name in the entry box and click Enter and the student will be created and assigned a card number. You can create students ahead of time and give them their assigned card, or distribute cards and call their name/record it with the card number during class time.
To create questions, click the Library tab at the upper left of the screen. There is a text entry box at the top of the screen. Click in the box to type the question, select a multiple choice/tf question, type the answers and check the correct answer. Click Save when you re finished. Once the question is completed, it will appear in a running list of questions in your library tab. To assign a question to a particular class, click the Add to plan button and select a class in the drop-down menu. A small colored circle will appear with the name of the class assigned that question. If you change your mind and wish to remove that question, click the circle and remove the class. To print out response card for students, click the Cards tab in the upper right part of the screen. Choose which set of cards you want to print out (most classes will want the Standard set. Click on the link and print. You can use the same set of cards for all classes, if you want to re-collect and store them, so you don t need to print multiple copies
When you re ready use Plickers with students, you need both devices. Click the Live View tab on the computer. On the app, click the name of the class class you want to use Next, on the app, click the title of the question you want to ask (the italicized questions are just questions you ve asked this class in previous sessions Once you select a question in the app, the computer will automatically show the question you ve highlighted on the app. Project this via your SmartBoard, so students can see answers and questions. NOTE: If the computer doesn t automatically show the question, refresh the browser and/or the app The boxes at the bottom indicate students and which card number they re assigned to.
To begin polling students, instruct them to hold up their answer cards, facing you, with the letter of the answer they believe to be correct at the top of the page. Click the camera icon on the app. On the screen of the mobile device, you will see the view of the room. Slowly scan the device around and over students codes. When the device reads a code, a small white bar appears across the screen so you know you ve caught it. On the computer screen and so, on the smar board you can see either which students have answered (if you re click in the Students tab) or a bar graph indicating how many students selected each answer (if you re in the Graphs tab). When you ve scanned all students codes, click the check icon at the bottom of the screen on the app, and progress to the next question. On the ios (Apple) app, there is a right-facing arrow that you can click to progress to the next question.
Later, you may want to go back and review student answers and see how students performed individually. Go back to the Library tab in the upper left of the screen. Next to each question that has been assigned to a class, you will see a bar graph of the answers that were selected by students for each question. Double click anywhere in the question box to see more detailed information about individual student reponses.