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Assigning Preferences & Settings: Customizing iClicker & iGrader

The default settings for both the iClicker and iGrader applications are chosen for ease of use and learning. However, you may alter the default timer settings, graph display, point values and other features to best meet your individual needs.

 

1. To customize, locate and select Your Settings and Preferences from the main iClicker Welcome Screen.
   
   Note: You have the option to save your preferences for only the current polling session or for the entire term. You may save some preferences for the duration of the course and others for only a single session.
   
   
   
   Note: The Settings and Preferences screen is available from the iClicker floating menu bar as well. This is useful if you have started or are about to start a session and realize that you need to make a last-minute change to your settings.
   
   
2. To open the Settings and Preferences menu from the iClicker menu bar:
   1. Click on the “Options” or down-arrow button on the menu bar.
   2. From the drop-down, select Settings and Preferences.
      
      
      
3. After you select Settings and Preferences from the Welcome Screen or menu bar, you will be taken to the Settings and Preferences screen. This screen has four settings tabs: General, Registration/Export, Question/ Polling and Scoring. Below is an overview of each subsection for each tab in Your Settings and Preferences.

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Settings & Preferences: Setting Tabs

I. General Settings/Preferences

II. Registration/Export Settings and Preferences

III. Questions and Polling Settings and Preferences

IV. Scores Settings and Preferences

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General Settings/Preferences

Enter Your Course Name: The course name you enter here is used in iGrader, HTML reports and on the Welcome Screen of the iClicker program. It does not have to match the name of your iClicker course folder.

Note: Entering a new course name is not the same as creating new iClicker folders for each course or section. Remember that you will need a separate copy of the “MyCoursePC” folder for each section or course for which you are using iClicker.

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Registration/Export Settings and Preferences

1. Roll Call / In Class Registration: This setting modifies the way that student names appear on the Roll Call screen for in-class registration. This option does not modify the format of your roster or grade book file.
2. Roster/Export – Blackboard Course Management System in Use: If you plan to record/report iClicker grades using Blackboard, select the system in this section. This will modify the format of the exported CSV files from iGrader so that they can be imported into Blackboard. If you are not planning to integrate iClicker with Blackboard, leave the default option “None (General)” selected.
   
   Note: WebCT has been acquired by Blackboard, and WebCT systems have been re-named nationally to “Blackboard Learning Systems.” However, these course management systems are still powered by the WebCT architecture, and for iClicker purposes “WebCT” is still used in Settings/Preferences.
   
   
   

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Questions and Polling Settings and Preferences

Set Polling Timer: When you pose a question in iClicker (i.e. when you click Start), the software automatically starts a timer (which remains active while you are polling). The default iClicker setting counts upwards, beginning with zero. In the default setting, you must select “Stop” to end the polling period.

1. Through Settings/Preferences, you may choose instead to enter a pre-set amount of time, in increments of 15 seconds, for the iClicker timer to count down. The timer will automatically stop at zero and end the polling period.
2. The timer also allows you to select countdown time in 15 second increments, for any length of time from 15 seconds to 4 minutes.
   
   Note: In the countdown mode, the “+” and “-" buttons to the left of the timer allow you to add or subtract 20 seconds as needed. You can still stop polling (even if you selected the “count down” option) by pressing STOP on the floating menu bar.
   
   
   
   
3. Chart Display Options: During polling, a graph is generated showing the results of each question in your session. The graphs can be displayed by clicking the “Display” button on the iClicker floating menu bar or using B on the Instructor’s Remote. This setting allows you to select whether the graph should be displayed as multi-color or monochrome.
   
   Note: For either display option, if you designate a correct answer choice and display the graph, the bar will appear in green and the remaining bars will turn red.
   
   
   
   
   1. To return the graph to the default multicolored mode, mouse over the graph so that the answer choices appear and select the ?, or if you are using the Instructor’s Remote function to toggle a correct answer, toggle through all options until the graph returns to multicolored.
4. Voting Results Grid: This option allows you to display (or hide) a grid of your students’ voting entries each time you ask a question. The voting results grid gives students an additional opportunity to confirm their votes were received. (Note that the “Vote Status” light on each clicker flashes green each time a vote is received by the iClicker base, so your students can confirm that their votes were recorded without displaying the grid.
   
   Tip:
   The voting results grid can be distracting from lecture if used extensively. We recommend you use this only in the beginning of the term if students need reassurance that their votes are being collected. You may also minimize the voting results grid during a polling session by clicking on the X on the top right corner of the grid.
   
   
5. Voting Grid Display Options: There are two ways to display the voting results grid. Confirmed Vote Receipt Only allows students to see their vote was received but doesn’t indicate their choice, while Confirmed Vote Receipt and Vote Selection allows students to see both their vote receipt and last received response on the screen.
   
   Confirmed Vote Receipt: Only displays the ID of each participating clicker. The color automatically changes from blue to green each time a vote is changed. The color white indicates that the student has not voted.
   
   Note: In order for an ID to appear, the student must have responded successfully to at least one question in the session. The first time the voting grid displays in a polling session, all of the remote ID responses will be either blue or green. (The student’s first response is colored blue, the second is colored green, and any subsequent responses to that same question toggle between these colors.) For subsequent questions in the same lecture, however, the grid will initially display all remote IDs that have been used in the session, in white. When those remotes have voted in response to the question, the color will change to blue. If they do not vote during a particular question, the remote IDs will remain on screen but stay white.
   
   Note: To help a student find his/her response, his/her ID will always be in the exact same location for that lecture.
   
   
   
   
6. Confirmed Receipt and Vote Selection: Displays both the student's iClicker remote ID and a different color depending on his/her last received response.
   
   Note: During polling, your students can freely change their votes at any time until you select STOP (their last vote is recorded). Students may use the color coding in the Vote Selection grid to quickly identify the most popular answer and change their vote in response. This behavior could both skew your question data and also impact your performance points assignments. If you are assigning performance points for a correct answer in your sessions, you may not want to choose the Confirmed Vote Receipt and Vote Selection option.
   
   
   
   
7. Question Pop-Up: Question 5 asks if you would like a pop-up window to appear before each question. If you select “Yes,” a pop-up window will appear each time you initiate a question in iClicker, allowing you to title the question (the default titles are Question 1, Question 2, etc) and assign a correct answer. The correct answer will not display in the “Answer” field; your students will only see an asterisk (*) regardless of the letter choice you enter .
   
   
   
   

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Scores Settings and Preferences

In this section, you are able to establish the point values earned for actively participating in class and for answering questions correctly.

i. Participation/Attendance

II. Performance

Participation/Attendance:

Participation points are awarded to students who attend and vote during lecture (encouraging student engagement). Participation points are awarded by overall session activity, not by individual question.

1. Number of Participation/Attendance Points per session: This field allows you to enter the number of points students earn in any given session for meeting the participation requirement, as defined in #2. Participation Requirement, below.
2. Participation Requirement: To earn the point value established above, students must respond to a certain percentage of questions in a session.
   
   Note: The following are the Participation Requirement levels: Very Lenient (one question answered), Lenient, Medium, Strict and Very Strict (all questions answered). Depending upon the total number of questions, iClicker will automatically calculate the minimum number of responses needed.
   
   Example: If you enter “10” points in Number of Participation/Attendance Points per session and there are 10 questions in a session, a student must respond to 9 of the 10 questions in the Strict level to earn the 10 points. In the Lenient level, the student must respond to a minimum of 5 questions to earn 10 points.
   
   
   
   

Performance:

Performance points are awarded to students by question for specific answers. Students can earn performance points without earning participation points, depending on your preference.

 

1. Number of performance points for each question: This field allows you to enter the default number of points students are awarded for any answer. These are different from participation points in that they reward students for performance by question, whereas participation points reward students for participation by session.
2. Additional points for each correct answer: This field allows you to reward students for choosing the correct answer for each question, in addition to any performance points you award in for simply answering the question.
3. Cap Performance Points: Here, you can cap the number of total performance points a student can earn in a single session.
   
   Example: If your maximum is capped at five points, and you hold a 6 question session with each question worth one point, even if a student answers all 6 questions correctly, the most he/she can earn for that session is 5 points.
   
   Note: You may choose to set these preferences for the entire term (course) or session. Your choices and selections on the Scoring Options page will appear in the i-grader Set Session Scoring window for subsequent lecture(s).

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This page was last updated on May 21, 2008.