Clicker Evaluation Committee
Monday, February 20, 2017
On Friday, February 17, 2017, the faculty committee at UNC Charlotte completed its deliberations concerning the clicker evaluations. Based on the information presented (overall look and feel, ease of use, flexibility, total cost of ownership, and features) plus the vendor demonstrations, the committee has decided to go with an institutional license contract with Poll Everywhere as its designated and standardized Student Response System (SRS). As a standardized system, Poll Everywhere will be the only supported and recognized polling system at UNC Charlotte. More information will follow as we begin the planning stage of moving over to Poll Everywhere. Turning Technologies will continue to be used for the spring and possible summer 2017 semester. At the end of summer 2017 semester, Turning Technologies will be retired from our system.
As we start the phased change-over beginning summer 2017 semester, we will be asking for faculty volunteers in spring 2017 courses to use the Poll Everywhere student response system in two or three learning instances in their class to gain feedback and best practices. The university’s IT Services department will purchase the institutional license and assume responsibility managing the contract. Our faculty will be provided the necessary support as they use Poll Everywhere for active learning. Students will have access to the student response system without having to purchase a license. Student, staff, and faculty communication, offerings of workshops, and training guides on Poll Everywhere will receive our utmost attention.
We thank the faculty committee members who were able to attend this final meeting for their questions, concerns, suggestions, and willingness to be a part of this process.
See final report from the clicker evaluation.
Sincerely,
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Monday, February 13, 2017
The final meeting of the Clicker Evaluation Committee will be held on Friday, February 17, 2016 from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm in Fretwell Room 126.
The purpose of the evaluation committee was to examine the present environment of clicker usage at UNC Charlotte. The goal of this meeting is to review the work of the committee, the priorities and needs as expressed by the committee, to share the new university solution, and the timeline for its implementation. Please review the Clicker Evaluation website and the information in the Teaching with Clickers Canvas project course, which has supporting information based on the vendor demos and survey data. We look forward to a productive meeting with committee members in the next phase of this very important project.
In anticipation that some persons may not be able to physically attend the February 17, 2017 meeting at 12:30pm in Fretwell 126, a Webex meeting room will be available for persons to remotely attend. The audio recording will be used to support the meeting minutes. A remainder announcement will be on Wednesday, February 15, 2017.
Sincerely,
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Thursday, December 8, 2016
The final vendor demonstration was held on Thursday, December 8, in Fretwell 126. As before, the demonstration was recorded and the video made available in the Canvas Clicker project course for all committee members. The vendor presented their student response application which is a mobile-only solution within the classroom. This polling application can be used with all mobiles devices, using browser, app, and SMS for certain question types.
The application works with PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, and Google Slides providing toolbars embedded within the applications. It also functions with any application or website. Students can use their mobile devices for anonymous responses as well as graded questions. Faculty can hide the results during the polling as well as show the class responses in real-time during polling. The product allows for repolling of questions for think-pair-share exercises. The application is integrated into Canvas through an LTI Integration and the synchronization of roster and grades is a simple process.
Technical support from the vendor is Monday to Friday. There is no charge to faculty as there is no a receiver, practice clicker, or any device beyond the podium computer or the faculty using their own tablet/laptop device. Students can purchase access for a semester or per year.
At the end of the meeting, faculty were able to ask questions concerning cost to students, accessibility of the mobile application, as well conversion of existing Turning Point polling slides which is an option available to the faculty within the application. It was noted that faculty can assign grades before and after polling per question. Committee members filled out an evaluation form to provide further feedback on the vendor demonstration.
Next Steps:
In the new year (January 2017), we will reconvene the committee to review the findings from the four vendor demonstrations and seek to make a determination as to the next steps in the decision making process. I will update all committee members with the meeting date/time starting in the new year after classes have settled.
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Monday, December 5, 2016
The third vendor demonstration was held on Friday, December 2, in Fretwell 126. The demonstration was recorded and the video will be made available in the Canvas Clicker project course for all committee members. The vendor demonstrated both their clicker and mobile solutions for polling responses in the classroom. The polling software can be used with all applications and can work with or without PowerPoint. Students can use a clicker or mobile device for polling, and images and questions will show on mobile devices.
While faculty can select the correct answers during polling, the polling software allows for an answer key to show the answers and apply points. The application is integrated into Canvas through an API/LTI Integration and the synchronization of roster and grades is a two-step process. Technical support from the vendor is Monday to Friday at 14 hours a day. More than one student can register a clicker and share with no additional fees. There is no charge to faculty who receive a receiver, practice clicker, and an instruction clicker. Students can purchase a lifetime access for the clicker and app (amounts to 5 years of access). Faculty are able to see the students who have registered and each time a grade is integrated, students who have not yet registered will receive a reminder email from the system.
In the roadmap for future initiatives, the vendor will be adding attendance option with geolocation to show where students are in relation to the classroom. At the end of the meeting, faculty were able to ask questions concerning cost to students, accessibility of the clickers and mobile application, as well sending feedback from questions to the app. It was noted that questions can be hidden if a student remotely tries to use the mobile app. Committee members filled out an evaluation form to provide further feedback on the vendor demonstration.
Vendor Demonstration: Thursday, December 8 at 8:00am in Fretwell 126
The last vendor demonstration will be held on Thursday, December 8 at 8:00am in Fretwell 126. We look forward to seeing all committee members come prepared to view the demonstration and ask questions as we conclude the clicker demonstrations.
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Wednesday, November 30, 2016
The third of the four vendor demonstrations will be held on Friday, December 2, 2016 in Fretwell 126. We ask all committee members to come prepared to view the demonstration and ask questions as we continue the clicker evaluation.
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Monday, November 21, 2016
The second vendor demonstration was held on Friday, November 18, in Fretwell 126. As part of their presentation the vendor unveiled new physical QT clickers that has a QWERTY keyboard able to respond to all question types. Their physical clickers are able to work with their mobile and web polling solution. The vendor demonstrated new initiatives pertaining to client support, multiple student options for clicker and mobile app, instructor options, plus additional tools to support teaching with technology. On the matter of user support, the vendor has committed to having persons/teams assigned to the university to handle user support and technology issues within a 24 hour timeline.
The vendor also provided a roadmap of things to come within the next year. Thee roadmap included offering an online store for purchasing clickers and the app, having a single sign-on process, a true cloud system for faculty to see participant lists from any device, and an updated integration process. At the end of the meeting, faculty were able to ask more specific questions concerning cost, session integration into Canvas, as well questions on updating the self-paced polling feature. Committee members filled out an evaluation form to provide further feedback on the vendor demonstration. The demonstration was videotaped and will be made available in the Canvas Clicker project course for all committee members.
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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For Friday, November 18, 2016
The second of the four vendor demonstrations will be held on Friday, November 18, 2016 in Fretwell 126. We ask all committee members to come prepared to view the demonstration and ask questions as we continue the clicker evaluation.
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Monday, November 14, 2016
The first vendor demonstration was held on Friday, November 11 in Fretwell 126. The vendor presented the various parameters of their clicker solution, including questions types, physical clicker capabilities,, Canvas integration, and data usage and availability. Committee members asked questions on accessibility, device option and details, concierge service, support, self-paced polling and security, pricing, average class size, the attendance feature, importing old slides, security, and the ferquency of technology updates.
At the end of the meeting, committee members filled out an evaluation form to provide further feedback on the vendor demonstration. The demonstration was videotaped and will be made available in the Canvas Clicker project course for all committee members.
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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For Friday, November 11, 2016 – Fretwell 126
The first of four vendor demonstrations will be held on Friday, November 11, 2016 in Fretwell 126. We ask all committee members to come prepared to view the demonstration and ask questions as we continue the clicker evaluation.
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Friday, October 28, 2016
The second meeting of the Clicker Evaluation Committee was held on Friday, October 28 in Atkins Library, Room 125. Our Associate Director, Heather McCullough, shared the results of the individual faculty groups’ assessment of important clicker features. Given the distributed nature of the task (i.e., to evaluate several features from a large list of features), the results were not as usable as the larger survey results. In short, each small group deemed the features they reviewed as either essential or very important to have.
Heather McCullough presented the results of the larger faculty and student surveys around the question of use of an app or web-based tool as either preferable or acceptable. Given the developments in the marketplace since the current clicker product was selected, it was agreed that the committee should review web-based and app-based solutions as well as solutions that have a hardware clicker device. Our Tech Team Manager, Jeff Meier, shared the feature matrix that will be used to determine which clickers to demo. He will begin lining up vendors for the demos. He shared the updated demo timeline:
- Friday, Nov. 11, at 8:00am: demo (45 mins + 15 minutes Q & A) – Fretwell 126
- Friday, Nov. 18, at 8:00am: demo (45 mins + 15 minutes Q & A) – Fretwell 126
- Friday, Dec. 2, at 8:00am: demo (45 mins + 15 minutes Q & A) – Fretwell 126
- ** Thursday, Dec. 8, at 8:00am: demo / decision (** additional meeting) (45 mins + 15 minutes Q & A) – Fretwell 126
Evaluation Committee Meeting Schedule:
Recommendation due at the end of January 2017
- Meeting, Friday Oct. 14 at 8:00am in Atkins 125
- Review initiative
- Requirements
- Technology options
- Vendors
- Faculty needs
- Website (committee, FAQs, surveys)
- Student concerns
- Need for survey (faculty and students)
- Meeting: Friday, Oct. 28 at 8:00am in Atkins 125
- Discuss and conclude scorecard based on clicker requirements
- Itemize and vote on vendor list
- Review RFP process
- Survey data
- Next steps
- Meeting: Friday, Nov. 11 at 8:00am in Fretwell 126
- Demo presentations (45 mins + 15 minutes Q & A)
- Meeting: Friday, Nov. 18 at 8:00am in – Fretwell 126
- Demo presentations (45 mins + 15 minutes Q & A)
- Meeting: Friday, Dec. 2 at 8:00am in – Fretwell 126
- Demo presentations (45 mins + 15 minutes Q & A)
- Meeting: Thursday, Dec. 8 at 8:00am in – Fretwell 126
- Demo presentations (45 mins + 15 minutes Q & A)
- Meeting: Friday, Dec. 16 at 8:00am in (Tentative)
- Make selection by voting
- Meeting: Friday, Jan. 13 at 8:00am in
- Advise Provost, CIO, and university community
- Final Report due: Tuesday, January 31, at 2:00pm
- Next Steps: Stay or Change?
Friday, October 14, 2016
The first meeting of the Clicker Evaluation Committee was held on Friday, October 14. Committee members examined the present environment of clicker usage at UNC Charlotte, as it affected faculty and students in the classroom. The committee discussed the following items:
- Their experiences with the present Clicker (“Student Response System”) solution
- The diverse instructional needs of our campus
- Integration with Canvas Learning Management System (LMS)
- Cost Structure (Clicker and License)
- The software (Cloud application)
- Support Issues
- Consideration of alternatives/other vendors
The committee was presented with data on clicker usage among faculty and students; how the new software and its processes impacted teaching and learning in the classroom, and the rationale for reviewing the present system. A general timeline was discussed comprising the work of the committee and the outcome of the evaluation. Also discussed were the various points of support that were required by all concerned in using the clicker system.
At the end of the meeting, the committee agreed to evaluate the criteria that a clicker system should have to support all academic units who use clickers. A clicker scorecard would be provided to the committee members (divided into groups) to evaluate feature clicker requirements based on categories (priorities). The categories are:
- Must Have Feature
- Nice to Have Feature
- Unimportant to Have Feature
- Undesired Feature
By the next meeting, all groups will have completed their respective scorecard rating. The committee members will then discuss their findings and come to agreement on the requirements. This will help to determine the next steps to take in the evaluation process.
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Monday, October 10, 2016
The first meeting of the Clicker Evaluation Committee will be held on Friday, October 14, 2016 in Atkins Library, Room 125 at 8:00 am. The purpose of the evaluation committee is to examine the present environment of clicker usage at UNC Charlotte. The committee will seek to determine whether our current Clicker (“Student Response System”) solution is supporting the diverse instructional needs of our campus or if we should consider alternatives/other vendors.
Committee Members:
- At least two faculty/staff members from each college
- 2 representatives from IT Services
- 1 representative each from administrative units that use clickers
- A representative from Purchasing
- 2 representative from Classroom Support
- 1 representative from Disability Services
- At least 2 members from the SGA, and
- three representatives (non-voting) from the CTL
The maximum members of the committee should not exceed 45 persons.
The meeting will examine recent survey responses from faculty, staff, and students that provided satisfaction data on clicker usage in the classroom. The process of the evaluation will comprise:
- Reviewing the Clicker Satisfaction Survey (faculty and students)
- Identifying faculty/staff sub-committees
- Identifying clicker usage across the campus (clicker data)
- Developing a FAQ site about the Clicker Evaluation
- Providing updates via the Teaching with Clickers project course and Clicker evaluation website
- Reviewing present Clicker solution and current issues encountered
- Reviewing the cost structures
- Evaluating clicker device and mobile solutions
- Reviewing Accessibility requirements
- Speaking to other universities on their solutions and experiences
- Identifying potential vendors and alternatives (no more than 3 software solutions)
- Presentation by vendors (demoing the clicker solutions)
- Providing updates to academic and administrative units
- Making a recommendation by end of January 2017
- Having a pilot phase for the identified clicker solution
As the committee members discuss the critical points, we urge you to contact and discuss with your college and unit representatives, who are serving on the committee to make your voice and suggestions known. We welcome the opportunity to hear from all faculty, staff, and students who will be impacted by the information shared and ultimately, the actions taken.
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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Monday, October 3, 2016
A Clicker Faculty Evaluation Committee has been created comprising over 40 faculty, staff, and students who will be reviewing clicker usage within the university.
UNC Charlotte has supported clicker technology from Turning Technologies over the last 5 years. As the university student population has grown, changes in the cost to our students, the software, and the process of using the software have occurred requiring a review of the technology. It is important that we remain current with the industry so as to strengthen the intentional use of technology in the classroom.
The mandate for the group is to evaluate our choice of clicker response systems and make a decision to stay or to change. The group will examine the use of clicker response systems in the classroom, review the responses from the faculty and student clicker survey, identify the various criteria for its use, the various choices in the marketplace, costs associated with the technology, compare with our present solution, and make the best decision to stay or change the vendor and the technology.
We seek your involvement in the evaluation group as you represent your college as well as faculty/staff who have effectively used clickers in their teaching in the classroom. Being on the committee allows your college, departments, and administrative units to have a voice in the evaluation of the technology. Group members will be expected to share all information back to their colleges and units for additional discussion.
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Bruce Richards, Ed.D.
Senior Instructional Technologist | Center for Teaching and Learning
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
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