Turning Technologies, maker of the student response system, TurningPoint Cloud, will be here to demonstrate and discuss the new version of their software. Feel free to drop in at anytime.
8/27/14 – Melville Library Classroom A – 9:00am – 12:00pm
FAQ — when getting your participant list through TurningPoint Cloud – the server address at Stony Brook University is https://blackboard.stonybrook.edu
This letter went out to all SBU students that had previously registered clickers (and were registered for class in the Fall 14 semester) from within our Blackboard system:
Dear Student
As a previously registered clicker user you are receiving this code so that you can have a free Turning Account and ResponseWare license which will last without further payment for 4 years (48 months).
This license code is for you, do not share this with anyone else.
To Create an Account and Activate License:
Create an Account and Register Devices:
1. Log into https://blackboard.stonybrook.edu – go into any course, then Tools -> Turning Account Registration. You will be taken to the Turning Account Registration website.
2. Complete the necessary fields below Sign Up and click Create Account.
3. Complete additional information and click Save.
4. Sign in with Username and password.
5. Click License tab.
6. Click Purchase.
7. Enter 4SBU and submit.
8. Enter your license code: fakecode
9. Click Redeem.
Any questions can be directed to our Technical Support Team at support@turningtechnologies.com or 866.746.3015.
This Fall, Turning Technologies is changing their software to a cloud based registration system. This doesn’t change it’s functionality for it’s use in the classroom or class preparation, and the software is already available online here:
As an instructor, be sure to create a turning account that is an “Instructor” account.
We are still using Turningpoint 5 till the end of the Summer II session, and therefore do not have the new building block for the cloud version installed on Blackboard. (Getting a roster/uploading grades will not work in TurningPoint Cloud till the Fall semester.) Just tried – and you can get your roster from the new software with the current production server of Blackboard.
The only difference in functionality is that we are allowing the use of ResponseWare for iOS/Android/web. This will allow students to use their smart device or laptop instead of a physical clicker — if you allow it. There are things to consider beforehand; like whether you want them using their devices in the classroom, the fact that they can poll in from remote locations (with assistance from a student in the class feeding them info), possible saturation of our wireless infrastructure and possible lack of cell service penetration.
Call me if you have any questions and here is a video showing how to download the new software and create your cloud account:
Clickers are used to gain student involvement in even the largest classrooms. At Stony Brook University, a lot of our instructors will assign points to the students whether they get the question right or not. Sometimes the same amount of points, sometimes not – and sometimes those grades make it to the grade book and sometimes, they only measure whether the students were responsive enough to merit attendance for the day.
So what does it mean if the results manager shows a 0 in the situation where the instructor gives points whether the students got the answers wrong or not? First, make sure that the instructor marked something as correct. If most students have a grade of some sort – but one or two students have zeros across the board, this isn’t likely the issue. You can double check that something was marked as correct, by going to the Turningpoint Manage tab selecting a session, and clicking Edit Session.
In the above picture you can see that answer 1 is marked correct and that both incorrect and correct answers would get a value of 1. So this doesn’t account for the 0 in the results manager or grade book.
The next thing that could be wrong, could be that the student unwittingly was in “Send Message” mode, rather than just in the regular polling mode. To find out if this is the case, go to Manage tab, then while having a session highlighted, click the Reports button.
Then for the type of report, choose “Session Log.” Here is where Turningpoint keeps messages that were sent to you when polls were open. You can see below, someone did in fact send “Hi.”
However, you can also see that two students were sending in what they thought were answers to the polls. If these students have zeros – you now know why.
Students could use laptops, ipod touches, or smart phones in class to respond to questions from the instructor. If you keep the “poll” or quiz open, you can also collect answers asynchronously for online/flipped learning. The answers are dumped to a spreadsheet, so you have all the data for assessment, attendance and participation.