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Interactive Teaching Tools

What are clickers?

Clickers are an audience polling system that allow students to participate in presentations or lectures by submitting responses to interactive questions. Clickers are sometimes called "classroom response" or "audience response" systems. HKS Media Services has an inventory of 600 Turning Technologies’ TurningPoint clickers. These can be checked out for class use in sets of 100.

As of Spring 2012 HKS has a new model of TurningPoint clicker devices that allows for expanded response types including numeric, fill-in-the-blank, and essay responses.

Why should I consider using clickers?

Using clickers well involves consideration of why and how your use of them might enhance your students' learning.

Why use clickers in your class?

Clickers can facilitate learning in a variety of ways by:

• Prompting active involvement in class discussion and in group collaborations.
• Involving all students equally rather than only those who speak first or are called on.
• Allowing students to answer anonymously and thus be more willing to take risks or make mistakes.
• Students’ misunderstandings will surface during class and can be addressed immediately.

How to use clickers as a tool for learning

Instructors use clickers in a variety of ways depending on their goals for the class, time available, individual teaching styles, and course content. 

Types of activities might include:

• Assessment – either formative/ungraded/developmental or summative graded
• Discussion warm-up
• Peer instruction

Types of questions might include:

• Conceptual understanding questions (e.g., "Which of the following explains this result?")
• Application questions (e.g., "What do you think will be the result of this implementation?")
• Critical thinking questions (e.g., "Which of these options is the best approach to take?")
• Student perspective questions (e.g., "If confronted with this dilemma, what would you do?")

Designing effective questions 

• Prioritize—make it worth the time/focus: what are core concepts that students have a hard time understanding?  
• Create options that are believable and representative of common misconceptions

How do I use clickers?

Main components

1. Clicker
   • Individual wireless device given to each student.
2. Receiver
   • A device that plugs in the USB drive of the computer in the classroom to receive the data from each clicker.
   • Has a radio frequency (RF) with an active range of 250 feet.
3. Software
   • TurningPoint – software used to add interactive questions into Microsoft PowerPoint on a PC
   • TurningPoint Anywhere – software used to add interactive questions into a PDF or other file (does not need to be PowerPoint) when using a Mac

How to run TurningPoint software

1. Download TurningPoint or TurningPoint Anywhere software.
2. Plug receiver into USB.
3. Open TurningPoint software.
4. Under the TurningPoint tab, go to Tools → Settings → Polling Test → Start Test
   • This forces you to check two important things:
     • You are in fact using Turning Point (not PowerPoint) if you have these options.
     • The hardware (receiver/clickers) is working correctly.
5. Open the file you’ve already created or create a new file.

Creating a basic question slide

1. Click on "Insert Slide" and select one of the chart slides at the top of the menu. The slide will be inserted into your presentation.
2. Type your question into the "Enter Question" text field. Remember to word your question for a multiple choice response.
3. After entering your question, click into the text field below and enter your answer choices. Press "Enter" after each choice to move to the next line. You can have up to ten answer choices.
4. When finished, simply click outside of the answer choice box and the chart will automatically update to reflect your answer choices.
5. Save your work and you are ready to begin polling!
6. Polling a question
   • Advance to the polling slide.
   • Green upper right "Polling Open"
   • Responses show how many people have voted.
   • Advance again to close polling and display results.
   • When data is stored, polling will not re-open unless you tell it to.
   • To re-poll the same question, click the re-poll icon at the top of the screen.
   • Save Session icon to save data from current session. If there is unsaved session data, TurningPoint will also prompt you before closing the software.

How can I avoid technical glitches?

Below are the common reasons for glitches and ways to minimize their likelihood.

1. You are unable to edit questions.
   • PowerPoint is opened instead of TurningPoint.
   • Do NOT open the PowerPoint presentation. Always open TurningPoint first, then open the presentation.
2. USB Receiver not recognized by the computer.
   • Unplug the USB device and then plug the device back into the computer.
3. You are receiving errors because the software is not configured correctly.
   • Auto save needs to be turned off in PowerPoint (found in the "Options" menu). This has been done on all classroom machines.
4. Student gets a blinking yellow light instead of a green light
   • Individual receiver’s frequencies have been changed. Media Services keeps all the frequencies set to channel 41.
   • The student should take a new clicker.

Recommendation:  If you have not tried the clickers in advance of your class, borrow some from Media Services to familiarize yourself before going in front of a class.

How do I reserve clickers for my class?

Three overall policies apply to the use of clickers in HKS courses:

1. Clickers checked out from HKS Media Services are for use in HKS classrooms and should not be removed from the Kennedy School premises without prior consent of Media Services.
2. Faculty (or faculty/course assistants) are responsible for picking up the clickers from, and returning the clickers to, HKS Media Services (located in Littauer-250, just above and behind the Forum area).  Media Services is available 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM and can be reached at 617-495-0493.
3. The sign-out period is 1 business day. If you’d like to use clickers on a recurring basis, you may do so by indicating "recurring" in the date and time area in the reservation system.  If the equipment is not returned at its scheduled time, a per-day late fee will be charged to your account until the equipment is returned.

There are two ways in which clickers can be reserved and checked out for use in HKS classrooms. Both utilize the on-line reservation system Spacebook (HKS login required):

The "Media Services - Equipment Check-Out" option:

From the menu bar at the top of the Spacebook home page, select: Services → Media Services - Equipment Check-Out

Enter your information for "when and where" and "location details" into boxes on the left, then click "Get Services". The "Details" box will appear on the right.  Fill in "Event" and "Client" details sections.

For "Equipment Check-Out", check "Audience Response System (TurningPoint Clickers)" and indicate how many clickers you’d like to borrow (it's a good idea to request a few more than the number of students you have).   Then press "Submit Reservation".

The "Request a Room" option:

NOTE:  in order to use this option, you’ll need access to the original reservation made for the classroom.  To get that access, you’ll need to become a "delegate" of Matt Lincoln in Spacebook.  To become Matt’s delegate, send an e-mail request to Kathy Papalimberis at Ekaterini_Papalimberis@hks.harvard.edu

From the menu bar at the top of the Spacebook home page, select: Request Rooms → Request a Room

After completing the needed information in the rest of the reservation, go to the "Media Services" area.  Under "A/V Presentation", check "Audience Response System (TurningPoint Clickers)" and indicate how many clickers you’d like to borrow (it's a good idea to request a few more than the number of students you have).   Then submit the reservation.

Where can I get more support and information for using clickers?

HKS Resources

Borrow clickers, learn how to set up using them in my classroom, get technical assistance during class time.

Stephen Kobialka, HKS Media Services

• E-mail: stephen_kobialka@harvard.edu
• Phone: 617-495-0493
• Location: L-250 (available by appointment M-F, 9am-6pm)

Get assistance on how and why to use clickers in my course, designing effective questions, creating slides.  Learn more about how other HKS Faculty are using clickers.

Josh Bookin, SLATE

• E-mail: josh_bookin@hks.harvard.edu
• Phone: 617-493-3707

Web Resources

SLATE:  http://www.hks.harvard.edu/degrees/teaching-courses/teaching/slate/interactive-teaching-tools

Turning Technologies:

• Support Homepage:  http://www.turningtechnologies.com/responsesystemsupport
• Video Tutorial:  http://trainingportal.turningtechnologies.com/
• "Turning Talk" – includes links to blogs, videos and case studies: http://turningtalk.turningtechnologies.com/home/

Vanderbilt Center for Teaching:

• Overview: http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/teaching-guides/technology/clickers/
• Bibliography (including uses in specific disciplines): http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/docs/classroom-response-system-clickers-bibliography/
• EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative – 7 Things You Should Know About Clickers (PDF): http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7002.pdf

Print Resources

Bruff, Derek.  Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009) - Available for check-out from SLATE library.  Contact Allison Pingree at allison_pingree@harvard.edu.

Where can I find research on interactive teaching?

Selected Materials from Eric Mazur, Balkanski Professor of Physics & Applied Physics, Harvard University

Books

Mazur, Eric.  Peer Instruction: A User's Manual.  Series in Educational Innovation (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997).

This volume is available for faculty use: Contact Allison Pingree at allison_pingree@harvard.edu or 617-496-6255.

Articles

Mazur, Eric, "Farewell, Lecture?"  Science, 323, 50-51 (2009).

Mazur, Eric and Jessica Watkins, "Just-in-Time Teaching and Peer Instruction." In Just in Time Teaching Across the Disciplines, Ed. Scott Simkins and Mark Maier, pp. 39-62 (Sterling, VA:  Stylus Publishing, 2009).

Crouch, Catherine H. and Eric Mazur, "Peer Instruction: Ten Years of Experience and Results."  American Journal of Physics, 69, 970-977 (2001).

DVDs

Interactive Teaching:  Promoting Better Learning Using Peer Instruction and Just-in-Time Teaching, Pearson Prentice Hall (2006).   http://www.teachingdvd.com/

Copies of this DVD are available for faculty use: Contact Allison Pingree at allison_pingree@harvard.edu or 617-496-6255.