By Fall 2016, UMBC’s approach to audience response systems (aka “clickers”) will need to change. Specifically, our clicker vendor, Turning Technologies (TT), has announced that TurningPoint 5 will be replaced with TurningPoint Cloud in January 2016. Also, the company will no longer support our current clickers as of Fall 2016.
Background & Next Steps
Currently over 4,000 UMBC students and 43 instructors use the TT clickers in classrooms. Students either purchase or rent clickers from the bookstore and then register them in Blackboard for use in their UMBC courses. Instructors use the latest installment of the TurningPoint 5 software to create pre-programmed polling questions and/or ask questions “on the fly” during class sessions.In light of the changes announced by TT, DoIT’s Instructional Technology team is conducting a comparative analysis of all currently available student response systems to determine the most appropriate solution for our campus. Among other features, many “clicker” vendors also now offer students and instructors the opportunity to use mobile devices and/or laptops in the classroom. This includes TT’s own ResponseWare software, eliminating the need for students to purchase the clicker hardware from the bookstore.
While DoIT knows not all faculty allow such devices in their classes, since all students are required to own or assure they have access to a computer -- and 95 percent bring a laptop to campus -- we’d like to get faculty and student input on exploring use of students’ mobile devices for interactive polling. Separately, we are also exploring if our campus WiFi could handle such increased usage.
Please provide your feedback regarding this transition by completing this survey.
In addition to a “clicker faculty survey” we will hold a Faculty Response System Town Hall meeting on Thursday, November 19, 2015 from 12pm-1:30pm in ENG 023 to share survey results and discuss response system alternatives for UMBC. Lunch will be provided to registered participants. If you would like to attend this meeting, please RSVP no later than Tuesday, November 10 via our DoIT events page.
