Tag Archives: turning technologies

Have a used clicker?

Some used clickers are coming from classroom kits where, because they are used differently than we do here at SBU, have had their clicker IDs changed and they no longer match the ID printed on the back on the device.  This will result in your course results not processing correctly.

To check to see if you device ID is set correctly…

 

press the wrench button
then the go right button twice
press the button under where it says OK
press under OK one more time
You should see Device ID: and whatever the device is set to will show here.
see if that matches what is on the back, printed on the clicker.

IF IT DOES NOT MATCH;  please email sliebschner@turningtechnologies.com   

After contacting Susan, follow her instructions to have this resolved.

 

 

 

 

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.

Missing Clicker Grade? Check this:

I have written about this before, but the clicker looks different, so I thought it was worth going over again.

There are two different ways that a student can use a clicker to send information to the instructor.  The first is the normal use of the clicker in the classroom… the poll response.  When a student uses this, the screen looks like this,

And when the student answers, they get a confirmation that the answer was received, and as long as the poll was given some grade, they may also get points in their blackboard grade book.

The second thing that students can send with their clickers are Messages.  The student enters into this mode by pressing the wrench button on the clicker,

and then sending the message

The student also gets a happy confirmation that this has been sent.. and messages can only be sent when the polls are open. But there are no grades or points associated with this activity, and if they believe they have answered a poll, they will get a zero.

As the instructor, you can check to see if this is happening in your class by opening the TurningPoint 8 software, go to the Manage tab, select a session file and click on Reports.

If you, like me get this error – ignore it

just click ok

and use the pulldown to select the report type Session Log

 

If you see entries that look like:

“Doe, John (8D5678) sent a message to the presenter: D”

You have students that think they are answering polls, but are really sending messages.  If you see things like:

“Doe, John (8D5678) sent a message to the presenter: Can you talk more about Mitosis?”

You have students who are sending messages, thinking you will see them and respond.

If you would like to see messages during class – you can.

You can click on the button as seen above that looks like a comic dialog bubble..  and that brings up a chat area that looks like this:

I hope this helps, and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to either TLT @ tlt@stonybrook.edu or Turning Technologies at support@turningtechnologies.com

 

Right now – SBU is using Turning Point Cloud for clickers in our classrooms.  As of tomorrow (May 31st), Turning Technologies will be releasing a new version of the software called Turning Point 8.  It will show up as a download from your instructor user account through Turning Technologies:

 

 

Turning Point 8 is NOT backwards compatible.  Any assessment and quizzes made with Turning Point 8 will NOT work in our classrooms and lecture halls.  (See above in the screen shot where it says “Before you download, please check with your institution…”)

The new version also will not be compatible with loading grades into blackboard until we decide to switch to the new version… so even if you only teach with your own laptop, you will not want to use anything but Turning Point Cloud at this time.

 

Student Response Systems at SBU

In an attempt for uniformity and appropriate faculty support of technologies, as well as saving our students the expense of being required to use multiple response systems; I am reminding everyone that Turning Technologies is the supported classroom student response system. What the students purchase can be used in both face to face and online responses; as well as at the instructor’s discretion, with a physical clicker or a virtual one.

Other companies that may come call or come onto campus are not supported.  Namely Top Hat.  

We re-evaluate the provider that we choose to use every few years as technology changes and evolves.

url

Jumped the Shark

Turning Technologies will last a few more seasons, but Fall 2014 will be the year when they jumped the shark.  It’s too close to the advent of newer methods of student responses for such a large hiccup.  Really a shame they couldn’t have gone out more peacefully.

I’m happy to say that it is supposed to work much better this spring. (Installing the new version on my computer as we speak.)  You can check to see if you have the newest version by opening up your application, then clicking on the TurningPoint Cloud logo at the bottom on the screen.  A window will appear and one of the buttons is Check for Updates.

 

fonz

 

Send Message mode will not get you points in class

Before you even answer a poll in class… how many icons are on your screen?  Does it look like this?

SM

It shouldn’t. This is the Send Message mode. Theoretically it is for asking the instructor questions during polling – but no one uses it really, and the messages you send go into a weird report that they never really have a reason to look at, so they won’t be seen.

It should look like this:

reg

 

To get out of Send Message mode… you must hit that back arrow in the lower left corner.

turningpoint cloud image

checklist of Turning Technology Cloud woes

We use clickers with an LMS – namely Blackboard (9.1.110082.0).

  • When you use an LMS, you need to register your online Turning Technology account with your school email address and indicate that you are either an instructor or a student.
  • Once registered as a student you can not start the TurningPoint Cloud program.  So, if you have to use clickers for a class – and you have to run the software because you are a TA, you will need to use a non-university email to register as an instructor. You won’t be able to sync anything like your roster, because the email address isn’t associated with your LMS.
  • No explanation has been giving for why allowing students to run the program is such a bad thing.
  • Once registered as an instructor, you can not register a clicker.
  • The instructions for how to use your license code that come in the box with a new clicker, contain instructions that are for students that do not use an LMS.  Following them can result in needing Turning Technologies’s support people to assist.
  • Courses that have rosters of more than 400 people cannot successfully connect with the Turning Technologies server without experiencing a time out. This goes for downloading the participant list and also for uploading grades. Turning Technologies currently is manually delivering the participant lists to our instructors via a support account that has been entered into those classes as a TA or Instructor. They are working on this and need to fix it. Fixed by software update from company. On the other hand, maybe not.  they are blaming our Blackboard “trafficking” on server time out issues.
  • Courses with large enrollments also getting server errors when attempting to start responseware. Fixed by software update from company. ??
  • During the first two days of class, students were receiving messages when trying to register saying that the code was invalid – but this was only because their server was over welmed. Apparently it was actually taking the license.  If a student tried again later, they would get a this code has already been used error.
  • Due to the tightening of security on the turningpoint system, session files and participant lists can no longer just be shared with another person by dragging it out of the folder and attaching to an email or shared drive space. (Note course coordinators!) These files must now be exported with a password that you then share with whomever you want to be able to open the file.
  • Also note previous post: https://you.stonybrook.edu/jadams/2014/08/26/turningpoint-cloud-is-damaged-and-cant-be-opened-you-should-move-it-to-the-trash/
  • There is no longer a  lookup device IDs for students who have registered in the Cloud only.  I used to use the Device ID lookup tool quite often to assist with Lost and Found devices.
  • Using RemotePoll for remote clicker sessions (we use it mostly for courses where we have more students than we can fit into one room. In this case we would stream the video into a second room and setup remote poll so that the students in the overflow room can still participate with the clickers), is now only between two windows machines over direct IP.  It used to have to be on a windows box in the remote room, but could be mac on the presenter machine.

I will update this as issues are resolved. Our classes started on 8/25/14.