Quick guides & How-to's
Technical Support Email: clicker-support@uiowa.edu
Specific questions? Visit our Troubleshooting section
Would you like printable guides to help get you started? Visit our PDF Documentation page.
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How to set the receiver channel |
- Go into Tools > Settings
- Highlight Response Device on the left
- Under Response Card Channels, you can change the channel for the receiver listed, either using the pull-down list or typing in the number.
- Make sure you are matching the channel to the one assigned to the room you are in, or choose an odd number to avoid interfering with neighboring classrooms with pre-assigned channels.
Note: If you are changing the channel, it's good to double check to make sure that the number of "Expected Devices" is setting to a number higher than you expect for your class. This will prevent the system from crashing, if it detects too many devices.
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How to set the channel on an individual Clicker |
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How to build questions in Turning Point |
| 1. In PowerPoint, go to "Insert Slide." From the menu, select the type of chart you want to insert. (You can change this later.) |  |
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| 2. Once you select the type of chart, a new polling slide will be inserted into your presentation. You can click on the text boxes to enter your question text and the choices. The chart will automatically add or subtract bars depending on how many choices you enter. |  |
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3. Once you have entered your question, you can mark a correct answer and insert a correct answer indicator. You can also insert an "Answer Now" indicator or countdown clock, amongst other things. |
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| To find these items, go to the "Insert Objects" menu. |  |
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How to set a correct answer |
On a PC: |
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Microsoft Office 2003
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Microsoft Office 2007
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| On a Mac (2 options) | |
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How to change chart colors |
- Select Tools from the TurningPoint toolbar or ribbon.
- Select Settings.
- Select Presentation.
- Make Sure the All Settings radio button is marked. [See image below]
- On the right hand pane, scroll to Chart Options.
- Select Chart Colors.
- Select User Defined.
- Select the color next to Chart Color 1.
- Select a new color from the pop up box.
- Repeat steps 8 and 9 until you have completed your color changes.
- Click Apply All.
- Click Done.
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How to convert PowerPoint slides into TurningPoint questions |
| 1. Build your questions in PowePoint in the title and text format. The bullets do not have to be numbers or letters. The process will automatically convert them to numbers or letters (whichever is the default in the TurningPoint settings). |  |
2. From the TurningPoint ribbon (or toolbar), go to 3. Select the type of chart you would like to insert. The slide will automattically be converted to a TurningPoint polling slide using that type of chart. You can also use Insert Object > Chart to change the type of chart you have on your slide. |
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How to create picture slides |
Instead of relying on text as choices for your questions, you can insert images in place of text for your questions. Before you create a picture slide, it is a good idea to have all your images in the same folder as your PowerPoint presentation. That way when you move your presentation between computers, your images will be copied as well.
| 1. Create a new TurningPoint polling slide. |  |
| 2. Enter the question and choices. Be sure to mark the correct answer before you insert your images. | |
| 3. Insert your images using PowerPoint. |  |
4. Once all your images are placed on your slide, shift-select the images in the order they appear as choices. In the example, I would shift-select the images in the following order: the horse, then the cow, the sheep, the dog, and then the pig. Don't worry about arranging the images, you can do that later. |
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| 5. With your images selected, click on the "Convert to Picture Slide" icon on the TurningPoint ribbon (or toolbar). |  |
6. By converting to a picture slide, the choice text disappears and the pictures are assigned to their numbers. You can now move the picutres around the slide. It is important to include the choice text before converting the slide. When you generate reports, this text will be included in the exported report and not the images. |
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How to set-up team-based competitions |
If you want to create some friendly competition during your presentation, you can easily set-up a competition using a set of standard polling slides, a team assignment slide, and a few scoreboards.
1. Go to Insert Slide > Team Assignment Slide (It's best to place this slide at the beginning of your presentation, since this sets up the teams which will be used to keep track of scores. It definately needs to go before any slides that you want to score.) |
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| 2. Enter team names or any other name you wish to use to create teams by. For example: Bears, Vikings, and Packers or Freshman, Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors. |  |
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3. Build your polling questions, like you normally would. But you need to make sure that you are assigning correct answers and points to each. By default, the points for a correct answer are set to 100 and those choosing an incorrect answer do not lose points. But you can also include negative points by typing the negative point value in the choice's spot on the sidebar (in PowerPoint 2007). |
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4. Once you have built some questions and assigned points, you will need to insert a team scoreboard. Scoreboards are found in the Insert Slide menu. You can also insert participant scoreboards. If you are using a participant list, names will be shown on the scoreboard instead of Clicker ID numbers. |
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Those are the basics to running a competition in TurningPoint. You can create teams (using the team assignment slide) or you can just score by individual participants (either using a participant list or running in the Auto mode). There are two types of scoreboards, which you can insert as often as you like. You can also skip the scoreboards altogether, and simply export out the scores when you generate the reports after the presentation. You do not have to create any special polling slides. You just need to remember to mark correct answers and adjust points as necessary (with the default being 100).
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How to do demographic cuts and data slicing |
TurningPoint allows you to do data cuts two ways: as demographic cuts and as data slicing. The two main differences between these is how you set up the data cut and how the data is displayed. Demographic cuts are slides built ahead of time which display the data cut by all the options at once. Data slicing is something done on the fly from the presentation show bar, and it does not require the use of demographic slides. Note that it only displays the data cut by one option at a time, but you can cycle through the choices using the number keys (1,2,3...).
| To create a demographic data cut: | ||
| 1. Build a standard polling slide that you would like to use as a demographic question, such as "What is your class year?" or "What is your major?" |  |
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2. You need to mark this slide as a demographic slide. There are two ways to do this, and one is specific to PowerPoint 2007 In PowerPoint 2007, there is a shortcut on the side bar that allows you to denote a slide as a demographic slide. |
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Otherwise, you have to go into the settings for a specific question and mark it as a demographic question.
This will work in both versions of PowerPoint, but it is the only way to do this in the 2003 version. |
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| 3. Once you have built your slides, you need to insert a "Demographic Comparision" from the Insert Slide menu. (It's down at the bottom.) | |
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| 4. A window will open with two pull-down menus: the first asks you to select your demographic slide and the second asks you to select the question you wish to use for the data cut. |  |
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| Once you do this, a new slide will be inserted. The options from the demographic slide will be inserted into the legend at the bottom. |  |
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| To do data slicing on the fly: | ||
1. Run the question that you would like to data slice. After you have closed the vote and revealed the results, select the icon next to the x/o icon on the TurningPoint showbar. |
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Keyboard shortcut: F3 |
2. From the data slicing dialogue box, select the question you want to use for the data slice. Select the + to reveal the options for the question. Select the first option or the option you would like to start the data slice. Then hit "select." |
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3. You will return to the question slide, but now the data is cut by the option displayed in the box at the top of the screen next to the showbar. You can cycle through the options by using the number keys on the keyboard. Using the example in the image above: |
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| 4. To return to your original data, select the icon next to the data slice icon (the one directly to the left of the circle icon). | |
Keyboard shortcut: F6 |
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How to create a before and after comparision of a question |
Using comparative links allows you to display the data from two separate questions on one slide. This can be useful if you want to view results before a presentation and compare them with the results after the presentation to see if there has been any improvement.
| 1. To insert a comparative link slide, go to Insert Slide > Comparative Links (it's on the bottom of the list). | |
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2. This will open a dialogue box where you can select your two questions to compare. The numbers next to the questions corresonds to the slide number. If you are doing a before and after comparison, the questions will probably appear similar. (For example, slide number 21 and 22 in the image.) Note: Which ever question you select second will be the text title for the slide. |
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The new slide is inserted into your presentation. Using my example, since I selected question number 22 as my second slide, the question text appears at the top of this comparative link slide. Note: There is a bug in the program, so you cannot change the text in the legend. Make sure you know which question was the first slide and which was the second if you chose to select two unrelated questions to compare in this manner. |
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How to generate reports in Excel and Word |
TurningPoint enables you to create several types of reports through Turning Reports. To launch Turning Reports, you can either go to Tools > Reports or double-click on your session file. This brings up the Reports window.
- In the "Sessions" tab, select the session you want to generate reports from. You can import sessions using the folder icon in the upper left corner.
- Select the "Reports" tab.
- Check the boxes next to the reports you wish to generate (see red arrows below). You can generate multiple reports at once, but it will take a little time depending on the number you are generating.
- Click "Generate Reports" in the lower right corner. TurningPoint will generate reports and open them automatically in Excel or Word, depending on which reports were chosen.
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How to export a Participant List out of ICON and import it into TurningPoint |
On your ICON course instructor site, you will find the "Download clicker roster" link in your "Course tools" window (found on the right side of the window). Clicking on this link will open a dialogue window where you can choose where to save the latest version of your course's participant list. You will need to save this file onto the computer in the classroom, so that you can import it into TurningPoint before you begin your presentation. |
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| We recommend saving it to: My Documents\TurningPoint\Participants
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| Otherwise, you will have to import your participant list. To do that, go to Participants > Import participant list. This will open a browser window. Find your list and import. It will then appear in the participant list pull down menu. |  |
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How to export results out of TurningPoint for use in ICON |
In order to export your results out of TurningPoint into your ICON gradebook, you will need to make sure that you are using the participant list you downloaded from ICON (see the above information on how to download your participant list and import it into TurningPoint).
You will also need to make sure that you have the D2L Iowa.tpl export scheme saved on your computer in the following location: My Documents\TurningPoint\Export Schemes. You will be able to download the necessary file from our website at: http://its.uiowa.edu/support/srs/downloads.shtml. If you would like a printable PDF version of the instructions, please go here.
Important Note: This process is for TurningPoint running on a PC only. You cannot use this process with TurningPoint AnyWhere. You will need to go through Turning Reports in TurningPoint to export your TurningPoint AnyWhere results. Also, TurningPoint on a Mac does not support export schemes, so you will need to either use a PC to export your results from your session files, or you will need to contact Lora McKee Anderson to arrange for remote access to our vitural Windows desktop.
Once you have run your presentation and saved the session, follow the steps to import your results into your gradebook.
To export your results out of TurningPoint: |
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0. If you don't have the file, go to http://its.uiowa.edu/support/srs/downloads.shtm and dowloade the "D2l Iowa" export scheme. Extract the .tpx file from the zipped folder you just downloaded. Copy the .tpx file into the Export Schemes folder on your computer. |
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| 1. On the TurningPoint toolbar, go to Tools > Session management > Export session data |
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| 2. Select the session file that was saved for the class. Then click "Next." |  |
| 3. Click the option check box for “Use Export Schemes” and choose the “D2L Iowa" export scheme. Then click "Next." |  |
| 4. This next window let's you include or exclude questions in your export. If there is a question you wish to exclude, just uncheck its box. Click "Next." |  |
| 5. Do not change anything in this next window, just click "Next." |  |
6. Change TP to desired grade book column name. (orange arrow) 7. In the top header line, delete the “,0,#” off the end of the line (blue arrow). 8. Once that is done, select the "Save current export file" button. (red arrow). |
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| 9. Browse to the desired save location. |  |
| 10. Enter desired file name. | |
| 11. Save file. | |
| 12. Using D2L, browse to the TurningPoint export data text file to upload the results to the grade book. | |
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How to import your results into ICON |
After exporting your results out of TurningPoint: |
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1. Log into ICON 2. Select the course 3. Click "Grades" 4. Click "Import Grades" |
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5. Click Browse. 6. Browse to results exported from TurningPoint. 7. Check Create new grade item box. Then click "Next." |
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8. You don't need to change anything here. Just click "Next." |
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9. Set new grade item properties, if needed. Then click "Next." |
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| 10. Don't do anything here unless you receive an error message or warning. Just click "Next." |  |
11.Verify imported information is correct. 12.Click "Import" |
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Note: You will need to be careful with is the naming of the imported results. Each time you import your results from TurningPoint, the results are labeled "tp". We recommend you change the "tp" to your desired grading column name when you export your results out of TurningPoint (step 6 in the export instructions above). Otherwise, you will need to rename your gradebook in ICON. If you don't create a new grading item each time, the previous results will be overwritten when you import the new results, unless you have renamed the previous results.