A Classroom Response System is a technology for electronically and wirelessly collecting and analyzing student responses to questions posed in the classroom, in real time. Clickers can also be registered to individual students, making it possible to use the technology for low-stakes quizzes and attendance taking.

i>clicker is the Classroom Support recommended Classroom Response System. The i>clicker Response System consists of transmitters (also known as “clickers”) and a receiver attached to the room’s computer (also known as a “base”). Please contact Classroom Support at 392-6683 or classrooms@ufl.edu for more information or if you are interested in utilizing this technology in your classroom.

Current Clicker Version

UF uses the i>clicker, i>clicker+ and i>clicker 2 remotes. New batteries supply approximately 200 hours of use. Original i>clicker uses 3 AAA batteries. New i>clicker + or i>clicker 2 remotes use 2 AAA batteries. Low battery indicator lights on the i>clicker and i>clicker + remotes will indicate that you need to replace the battery; i>clicker2 remotes have a battery life icon on the LCD display.

Purchasing Student Clickers

Students can purchase clickers starting at $45.00 + shipping directly from i>clicker.

Students can also purchase i>clicker remotes (also known as clickers or transmitters) at local textbook stores, but faculty should work directly with bookstore(s) to verify stock is available for their students. Instructors should inform bookstores of their order size as early as possible so that appropriate numbers of clickers can be stocked.

Students may resell and reuse clickers at their discretion through any available means, you can easily find them for sale on eBay and occasionally on Craigslist.

i>clicker Software

i>clicker 7 is available for Mac or Windows PC (our classrooms have Windows PCs), carry the software to class on a flash drive, as data saved to the classroom computers is wiped at the end of every day.  You must download from these links in order to use Canvas integration at UF.  Call Classroom Support at 392-6683 or classrooms@ufl.edu to check to see if your room has a base receiver installed, and if it does not we can install one for you.

 

Creating your Course

(Adapted from this guide to Sakai and this guide to Canvas.)

To create a course and change your course settings: 

  1. Under the Select a Course box click the “+ Create” button to create your course.
  2. A Create a New Course windows appears. Enter your Course Name.
  3. Click Create. i>clicker automatically creates a new course folder in your iclicker Win\Classes or iclicker Mac:Classes  The New Course window closes and you are returned to the main window where you will see your course name in the list of courses. Select your course and click Settings.
  4. The Course Settings window appears. Click the Gradebook tab and make sure your LMS is selected in the Learning Management System box.  In most cases you will use Canvas.  If you are still using Sakai you will need to set it here and follow manual integration using the guide here.
  5. Click Select Course. You will be presented with a Gatorlink login screen, once you are logged in you will see another prompt that i>clicker is requesting access to your account. Click OK.
  6. At this point you will see a box with the instructions Select your course and you will see your courses in a list. Select your course and click Select.
  7. You may want to further customize your settings. Check the General, REEF, Gradebook and scoring pages.  More information can be found here.
  8. Close i>clicker.

Exporting your Participant List (roster) from Canvas into i>clicker

With i>clicker you do not need a participant list to get started, the answers will be recorded and assigned to the clicker ID or REEF Polling account of the students and synchronize the results with the student names at a later date. i>clicker Integrate is now supported for Canvas.

Exporting a Canvas Course Roster

Once you have created a course in i>clicker, you can download a course roster from Canvas and add it to your i>clicker class folder.

To download/export your Canvas course roster:

  1. Open i>clicker
  2. Select your course from the list and click Open Gradebook.
  3. Click Sync Roster. You will be presented with a Gatorlink login screen, once you are logged in you will see another prompt that i>clicker is requesting access to your account. Click OK.
  4. At this point you will see a box with the instructions Select your course and you will see your courses in a list. Select your course and click Select.
  5. You should see a green progress bar that displays the message Student roster downloaded successfully when finished. If an entry is listed in blue the student has registered in Canvas, but if the entry is in red that student has not registered and so their clicker ID is not yet matched to their student ID.  You will need to keep synchronizing the roster until everyone is registered.

Clicker Registration and Synchronization

To associate your student’s clickers with their names in your gradebook you will need to have your students register their remotes in Canvas.  They will do this using their i>clicker option in the left navigation menu in Canvas.  To enable the i>clicker menu you will need to select Settings on the bottom of the left menu, then go to the Navigation tab and drag i>clicker up into the area with active menu items.  When selected they will be presented with three links, choose i>clicker Registration and enter the alphanumeric code from the back of their i>clicker remote. Once your students have registered their remotes you can use the Sync Roster button again to update your gradebook.

Using i>clicker In Class

Polling Students

(Adapted from this i>clicker support article)

  1. Select a course and choose to start a new session.

The Session Toolbar appears in the top left corner of your computer screen. You can reposition the toolbar anywhere on your desktop. The floating toolbar allows you to run i>clicker with your presentation application(s). For example, if you use PowerPoint or Keynote, both your presentation and the i>clicker toolbar will be active. The toolbar floats on top of other applications, such as Word, Acrobat, web browsers, etc.

IMPORTANT: The Start New Session and Resume Session options are enabled only if a base station is attached to your computer.
The Session Toolbar includes options to perform the following:
A – Close or end the session
B – Minimize and maximize the toolbar
C – Start/stop a poll
D – Select the question type
E – Show/hide the results chart
F – Display the Options menu

  1. Instruct your students to turn on their devices.

    NOTE:UF uses the standard frequency AA, if students buy their clickers used instruct students tochange the channel on their i>clicker devices.

    3. Present a question to the class.
    Present questions to the class using a projector or verbally. You can use any program (e.g., PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Docs, Word, Acrobat, etc.) to present a question to the class. Or, you may choose to verbally present a question. Simply state the question and answers choices.
  2. Select the question type (if necessary).
    Select the question type from theSession Toolbar(if necessary) to match the question presented to the class.
  3. Press Start (>) to begin a poll.
    When polling is active, theStart (>)button switches to a Stop button and a timer appears. A counter on the far right of the toolbar displays how many students have voted. You can choose to show or hide the results during a poll by pressing the Chart button. All other options are disabled during a poll.

TIP: The base station LCD shows the polling results for an active poll. The information shown depends on the base station display settings.

NOTE: i>clicker begins collecting votes after you select the Start button. On the i>clicker 1 or i>clicker + remotes, a green Vote Status light (next to each button) on the students’ remotes indicates a response has been successfully recorded. On the i>clicker 2 remote, a checkmark on the LCD screen indicates that a response has been successfully recorded.

  1. Press Stop on the toolbar to end a poll.
    NOTE:    i>clicker stops collecting votes when you choose the Stop button. If students attempt to vote when polling is not active, on i>clicker 1 and i>clicker + remotes, the Vote Status light (next to each button) flashes red. On the i>clicker 2 remotes, a closed session symbol appears on the LCD screen.
  2. Choose to view the polling results.
    You can choose to show the polling results during or after a poll. Simply select on a bar to select/deselect it as the correct response. Alternatively, choose the correct response from theAnswerpop-up menu in the top, left corner of the chart window. Before selecting an answer, each bar appears in a different color. After choosing the answer, the correct answer bar appears in green and the other bars appear in red.

Close the window when you are finished viewing the results.

TIP: The chart window includes many options for viewing student results. You can change the default chart settings using the Course Settings option.

  1. Repeat Steps 3 – 8 for each new question.
  2. End the session when you finish asking questions.

Select the Close (X) button on the toolbar or choose Close Toolbar from the Options (gear) menu. The program ends the session, stores the student responses in the gradebook, and displays the i>clicker home screen with your courses.

 

REEF Polling (virtual clickers using smart phones, tablets, or laptops)

In addition to physical clickers, at the instructor’s option, students may be permitted to use REEF Polling, a web-based virtual clicker, to participate in the class. Instead of pressing buttons on a physical clicker, students will select their answers with a web-enabled smart phone, laptop, or anything with a web browser, and may use the i>clicker GO application specifically designed for Apple iOS devices (iPods, iPads, iPhones). Keep in mind that these devices will be dependent on WiFi coverage and i>clicker’s servers so we would recommend that those using REEF Polling check our WiFi coverage page here.

Purchase a REEF Polling subscription

REEF Polling can be enabled by the instructor free of charge, but to use REEF Polling instead of a remote students must purchase a subscription. Encourage students to take advantage of the REEF Polling 14-day trial that comes free with every REEF Polling account BEFORE purchasing a subscription. This way, they can be sure that the Wi-Fi or cellular connection in your classroom is stable enough for them to be able to use REEF with confidence. If they find out that the Wi-Fi or cellular connection strength is not sufficient, they are then able to purchase an i>clicker remote without having paid for REEF already. REEF Polling subscription purchases are non-refundable, for any reason.

Enable REEF Polling

(Adapted from this i>clicker support article)

The REEF Polling settings allow you to enable REEF for your class. Students can then use their laptop or smartphone with the REEF app to respond to polls in your class.

  1. Select the REEF Polling tab in the Course Settings window.

When REEF Polling is enabled, the software allows you to start or resume a session without an attached base station. Without a base, students cannot vote using physical clickers and you cannot use an instructor remote.

  1. Select the Enable REEF Polling button.
  2. Choose to create a REEF instructor account.  Or, log in if you already have an account.
  • Enter your first name and last name. Students will use the name entered here to find your course.
  • Enter your email address.
  • Enter and confirm a password.
  • Check the box to agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
  1. Complete the REEF set up process by entering your course details.
  • Enter your institution and course name. We suggest using the same course name as your i>clicker course (from the main course window). The course name you enter here is the course name students will see when finding your course using REEF Polling.
  • Set the option to determine when your students will see a screen capture. By default, screen captures of your desktop are NOT sent to students. You can choose to allow screen shots to students when polling starts or when polling ends. These settings affect the entire course (rather than a particular question or session).
  • Optional — enter the course ID, term, course dates, and meeting times.  The additional information makes it easier for your students to find and join your course.
  • Choose to create the course.

IMPORTANT: If your institution does not appear in the list, please contact support@iclicker.com. Students must select the institution and course to join a polling session with the REEF app.

  1. Review the course details and then choose to save the settings.

If you notice an error with the course details or your account information, choose to edit the information. Once you save the settings, REEF Polling enabled appears on the main window.

NOTE: Choose the Disable REEF Polling button if you no longer plan to have students use REEF to respond to your polls.

 

Special considerations:

  • Students need to enter their student ID as it appears in your roster into their REEF profiles. If students do not enter their student ID in their REEF profile, they will not show as registered in your i>clicker gradebook. They will appear as “Unknown REEF User” until they enter their student ID in REEF (and you synchronize your roster).
  • If you resume a session in i>clicker, the session will appear as a new session to REEF students.

REEF Polling Best Practices

(Adapted from this i>clicker support article)

  1. If you are using an iOS phone or tablet, be sure to download the native app from the App Store. If you’ve already created an account on reef-education.com, you can use the same credentials to login to the app.
  2. If you are using a smart phone or tablet, check your Wi-Fi settings to ensure you’re connected to a wireless network. Generally, Wi-Fi will provide a better experience than your wireless data connection (3G or 4G). However, If you are already connected to Wi-Fi, and you’re still having trouble with the app, try using wireless data instead (3G or 4G).
  3. Log out and log back in again. If your cellular or Wi-Fi connection is not stable, it is possible that REEF Polling could “hang” without acknowledging that your instructor has started a session. Logging out and logging back in again can “reset” REEF Polling’s connection settings so that your device recognizes that a session has begun.
  4. If they have done all of the above and are still having trouble, they should contact i>clicker at support@iclicker.com and they will investigate further.

Importing Data into eLearning

To upload grades into Canvas:

To download/export your Canvas course roster:

  1. Open i>clicker
  2. Select your course from the list and click Open Gradebook.
  3. Click Sync Scores. You will be presented with a Gatorlink login screen, once you are logged in you will see another prompt that i>clicker is requesting access to your account. Click OK.
    At this point you will see a box with the instructions Select your course and you will see your courses in a list.  Select your course and click Select.
  4. You will be presented with the Upload Scores to LMS window which has a list of sessions with checkboxes next to each one. Make sure the session(s) that you want to upload are checked and click next.
  5. You will be given some options to either aggregate sessions or create them as a single entry, you will also be given some scoring options. Click Upload when you have made your decisions.
  6. You should see a green progress bar that displays the message Scores uploaded successfully when finished.

Additional Information

For more information on using i>clicker in a classroom at UF, please contact AT Classroom Support at classrooms@ufl.edu or 392-6683.

i>clicker maintains a thorough support website at support.iclicker.com.