Using iClicker without Blackboard or Canvas

Please request a meeting with the Center for Teaching Innovation or you may download the software from the CTI iClicker site and follow the detailed instructions on this page.

The following information is for your class if you are providing student clicker points on your own course web site.

• What to tell students
• How to set up your iClicker program
• How to connect your students’ clickers to their names
• How to export clicker points to display in your course web site

What to tell students

Include the following information on your course web site or send in an email message to all students:

How to set up your iClicker program

Setting up the iClicker software for the first time:

• 1. Either you received the iClicker software from Academic Technologies in a meeting or you downloaded the software from the CIT iClicker site – to request a meeting, please fill out the request form
  2. Connect the white iClicker receiver base to your computer – If you need an iClicker receiver base please contact the Academic Technologies staff at acadtech@cornell.edu
  3. If you are running the iClicker software from a flash drive, connect the flash drive to the USB port on the white receiver base.  You may also need to plug in the power cord to the white receiver base.
  4. Your computer will recognize the USB flash drive and you may be prompted to Open Folders and Files (PC) or it will be displayed automatically on your desktop (Macintosh)
  5. Double-click on the iClicker icon to open this drive
  6. Locate the iclicker Win or iclicker Mac folder on the USB flash drive.  Double-click the correct folder for your computer.
  7. Double-click the iClicker icon to start the program
     
  8. At the main iClicker screen, click +Create
  9. In the Create a New Course window, enter your Course Name – Introduction to Astrology, for example and click Create
  10. Back at the main iClicker screen, click on your course name and then click on the Settings button
  11. The Course Settings window has tabs along the top.  You can edit the settings in each tab and then save all settings once when done.
      
      Under the tab:
      • General: type in your ID on the back of your blue instructor remote in the Instructor’s Remote ID field, such as the example:
        
        The rest of the settings for the General tab can be left as is
      • Registration: Leave Send Anonymous Diagnostic Information as the choice
      • Mobile: If you choose to allow use of the iClicker Reef Polling app by your students, please follow the steps at the iClicker Reef Polling for Instructors page.  This is not required.  You may skip this tab if you will not be allowing iClicker Reef Polling to be used in your class.  For full details about iClicker Reef Polling, see the Mobile/Web Polling page.
      • Gradebook:  The Roster Source should be General (No LMS) and the Server URL should be blank
        Check the two boxes:
        Upload zero scores as zero
        Upload Ab (absent) scores as zero
      • Roll Call: Since you will not be using the roll-call method of student clicker registrations, do not modify the In-class (roll call) registration settings
      • Toolbar:  You may choose to change the size of the toolbar by clicking on the choices next to Toolbar size:, but most likely you will leave this setting at Normal
        You may also change the Polling timer from counting up to counting down from a specified time.  Most instructors leave this setting at Count up from 0 seconds, but you may have a need to limit the amount of time students may respond to your questions, such as an in-class quiz.  If you want to set a Count down from time, choose it from the drop-down menu and click the radio button to the left.
      • Scoring: If you will be providing points to your students for responding to clicker questions, this tab is where you will set the points and thresholds for achieving those points.  This is separated into two type of points: Participation and Performance.  The settings that you make here in i>clicker are set for all questions and all sessions.  You may, however, modify any individual question’s point settings after that class if you need to in the iClicker Gradebook.  Please note that points can be awarded for fractions of a point, allowing you to set points less than 1.00 for both Participation and Performance.
      • Results: This tab describes the settings for the Results Chart that you display after responses have been collected for a question and you have stopped the poll.  The default setting of Multiple choice results as Color is recommended.  The Numeric and Short Answer settings do not apply, since clickers cannot respond to those type of questions.  The Results display setting is recommended to be unchecked.
      • Base Display: You can view the responses in real-time as they are submitted by the students on the white i>clicker receiver base, which will be in front of you at your lectern.  The default setting for Multiple choice display – Show the number of votes for each answer choice – is recommended.  The Numeric and Short Answer settings do not apply, since clickers cannot respond to those type of questions.
      • Click Save to save the settings for all tabs that you have modified

When you are returned to the main iClicker window, click the Start New Session button to begin a polling session.

How to connect your students’ clickers to their names

In order for iClicker to recognize your students properly, you will need a roster file for your course. You can create one yourself through your Faculty Center student roster.  Once you have created this file, check that it is in the proper format of:
lastname1, firstname1, netID1
lastname2, firstname2, netID2
lastname3, firstname3, netID3
…and so on. No other data should be in the file.  Finally, change the file name to be exactly: roster.txt (check to be sure there is no hidden extension on the end of this file name) and save it in your iClicker USB flash drive or in your iClicker course folder on your computer.  This file will replace the existing roster.txt file found in the iClicker Mac or Win: Classes: The Name of Your Class folder.

To connect your students to their clickers, follow these steps:

1. Open your iClicker program and click once on your course
2. Click the Open Gradebook button
3. A list of the students in your roster file will be displayed, alphabetically by last name
4. After you have used iClicker on your class at least one time, click the Sync button to connect students to their clickers, which you have informed them to register.
   Please Note: You will need to update your class roster file at various dates during the semester to include new students and to remove students who have added and dropped your course, as well as associating students who register their clickers after the first time you have synchronized.

How to export clicker points to display in your course web site

Follow these steps to export clicker points from iClicker to a file that you can upload to your course web site:

1. Open your iClicker program and click once on your course
2. Click the Open Gradebook button
3. Click the Export icon:
   
4. The Export Session Data window appears. Click the check box(s) next to all sessions that you want to export or click Select All
   
5. Click Next
6. Choose the settings to Export Session Data as described:
   
7. To export the session data to a file, click Export and save the file to the course folder on your iClicker USB drive or to your computer
   
8. The student scores are saved in in a file called Uploadfile.csv
9. You now have a file that contains the clicker data and can upload this file to your course web site

NOTE: Only one Uploadfile.csv can exist in your course folder at one time. If you wish to export data into more than one file, you will need to move or rename the previously-created Uploadfile.csv before exporting a different selection of sessions. When you no longer need the information in the exported file, you may leave it in your course folder and it will be overwritten the next time you need to export the clicker data.

Please Note: Your students will need to use their clickers once in order to connect their clicker IDs to the names in the roster.