Monthly Archives: September 2018

New Feature to Help Students Get Registered Correctly in TurningPoint

You may find that some of your students have not properly registered their clicker licenses (AKA Subscriptions) and others may not have successfully made an account at all with Turning.

An easy way for you to reach out to these students is to use the new email feature in TurningPoint.  To do this, launch the software, and go to the Manage tab.  Then, select your course on the left panel so it is highlighted.

in the upper right corner is the envelope icon.

On the top right, there will be a little envelope icon.  Click that, and it will give you options to reach out to your students.   Do not check the Clicker ID box as students using mobile devices will get a message telling them they need to add a clicker ID.  But, do check the Subscription and Create Account boxes and then click Send.  Students who need to just add a subscription will get instructions to do so, and students who need to create an account will get the appropriate instructions as well.

Peer Review with Google Forms and Sheets 

I saw this on a list serve today and thought I would share.  Peer review can be so beneficial to students, and can also be of service to extra large classes when paired with a robust rubric.

Peer Review with Google Forms and Sheets 
1:  Assign each student a random number; make sure they can see it (text column in gradebook). <- this was for anonymous review
2:  Create a Google Form to collect feedback in. Populate the form with survey-style questions mirroring your grading rubric.
3:  Set up an Assignment in the LMS for the students to upload their papers; be sure to have them only sign it with their assigned number for anonymity.
4:  Download the essays and save them as .pdf files named with the assignment and number (ex: 5678 PR 1 for student number 5678’s first peer review essay).
5:  Create a Peer Review 1 folder in Google Drive and drag all the .pdf essays into it.
6:  Create a Google Sheet with columns for the student numbers and for the numbers on the essays they are assigned to review:
7:  Students input review scores and comments; instructor does the same using a recognizable number such as “9999”.
8:  Once the deadline has passed, sort the results sheet by student number, calculate averages, triple-check for anonymity, and share the form (“read only”).     (This formatting takes time but is still better/easier/more efficient than the Bb Peer Review tool, and free.)
9:  Enter scores in gradebook.

“It’s labor-intensive but the students benefit from seeing all the feedback”

credit to Judith Littlejohn from SUNY Genesee Community College.

echo360 Q&A (info change and general guide)

New Update:

Instructors can now hover over students’ names in the Q&A panel of the classroom, and in the Q&A tab, and see the email address of the student who generated the post. This allows instructors to more clearly identify students with the same name, or students who entered the system with no first/last name on their account.

 

To monitor classroom questions/discussions

  1. Go to the classroom.
  2. In the classroom toolbar, click the Discussions icon (shown below) to open the Discussions panel and view student posts and responses, pose questions, and respond to students’ questions.
    Instructor classroom view with discussion icon and open panel identified

To post a question from the classroom

  1. In the classroom toolbar, click the New Question icon.
    The Discussions panel opens to show a New Question text box, the same as if you had clicked New Question from the Discussions panel.
    Instructor classroom view with new question icon and panel identified
  2. Enter text into the New question textbox
  3. Click the paperclip icon to include an attachment with your question.
  4. Select whether to Reference class content with the question. This simply means that the classroom presentation will synch to the question when another user selects it.
  5. Enable the Post anonymously slider to post the question without your name. Instructors can see the authors of all posts; students cannot.
  6. Click POST QUESTION.

The question can now be viewed and responded to by students or other instructors of the section.

To respond to a question from the classroom

  1. In the classroom toolbar, click the Discussions icon (shown below) to open the Discussions panel.
    Instructor classroom view with discussion icon and open panel identified
  2. Click the question/post you want to respond to.
    The Questions panel changes to show a button for responding as well as any previously posted responses.
    Discussion panel with clicked question for responding as described
  3. Click RESPOND TO THIS QUESTION.
    The question panel changes to show a response text box.
    discussion panel with response text box shown for responding to post as described
  4. Enter your response in the text box.
  5. Click the paperclip icon to include an attachment with your response.
  6. Enable the Post anonymously slider to post your response without your name. Instructors can see the authors of all posts; students cannot.
  7. Click POST.

The Discussion panel changes to show you have responded to the question.

Click the menu arrow (also called a “chevron”) located to the right of a question/response to display the Edit and Delete commands. All users can edit their own (and only their own) questions or responses. Users can also delete their own posts.

As an instructor, you can delete any questions or responses posted by students if they are inappropriate.

To endorse a particular post, click the “thumbs up” icon.