# 3 - Using i>clicker in the Classroom

# Polling Students

1. Double-click the i>clicker icon to start the program.
2. The Welcome screen appears. Select the desired course from the list of available courses and click Choose. If you do not see your course listed, see Create Your Course(s).
   Welcome to i>clicker window with courses listed
3. The i>clicker Home screen appears. Click Start Session.
   i>clicker Home screen
4. The Session Toolbar appears in the top left corner of your computer screen.
   i>clicker Session Toolbar
   You can reposition the toolbar anywhere on your screen. 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 above any application including Word, Acrobat, Web browsers, Mathematica, etc.

| TIP: If you reposition the toolbar on your desktop, the system will remember its placement and retain the new location until you change it again. This feature gives you more flexibility and control to design your lecture presentations so that the floating toolbar never obstructs your question text or images.

| TIP FOR KEYNOTE USERS: In order for the i>clicker menu bar to float over your presentation, be sure Keynote is set to allow other programs to share the screen. In the Keynote Preferences menu, please select the option below: Keynote Slidehow Preferences window

5. When you are ready to pose a question, advise your students to turn on their clickers then present the question and answer choices (either verbally or visually).
6. If the question type shown on the Start button does not match the question you are asking, click the drop-down menu option attached to the button to change the question type.
   Toolbar with question type menu expanded
7. Click the Start button to begin polling. When polling is active, the Start 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.
   Active i>clicker Session Toolbar

| NOTE: i>clicker will only begin collecting votes after you click the Start button. (i>clicker remote: A green Vote Status light on the students’ remotes indicates that a response has been successfully recorded. i>clicker2 remote: a checkmark on the LCD screen indicates that a response has been successfully recorded)

| TIP: If you use a program to display your question (e.g., PowerPoint, Keynote), make sure it is the active application when you start polling. Each time you click the Start button to begin polling, i>clicker captures an image of the active window and stores it along with polling results for later review in i>grader.

8. Click the Results Chart button on the toolbar to view a graph of your students’ responses for the current question (see Viewing Student Responses). To end the polling session, click the Stop button on the toolbar and i>clicker will no longer accept votes.

| NOTE: i>clicker stops collecting votes when you click the Stop button. If students attempt to vote when polling is not active, (i>clicker remote) the Vote Status light on their remotes will flash red three times to indicate that a response was not received; (i>clicker2 remote) a "No" symbol appears on the LCD to indicate that a response was not received.

9. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each question you ask in class.

| NOTE: Students can turn on their i>clicker remotes and vote at any time while polling is active by pressing the ON/OFF button on the remote. We recommend students keep their remotes on during the lecture. The iclicker remotes will automatically shut off after 90 minutes of inactivity to save battery power. The i>clicker2 remotes will shut off after 5 minutes of inactivity to save battery power. (The i>clicker2 remotes shut off after only 5 minutes of inactivity because the remote remembers the base frequency. Students can simply turn the remote back on and vote if the remote powers off.)