In the past, students registered their clickers (along with their name and student ID) on the iclicker Web site, and faculty members would synchronize their course roster with the iclicker database to assign student names to clicker IDs. As of SP2015, iclicker has instituted a new policy, and students will be charged a small (currently $6.99) fee to register a "used" clicker on the iclicker.com Web site. If a faculty member doesn’t want students to pay that fee, then s/he can use the in-class "Roll Call Registration" method for registering particular clickers to students. To use the Roll Call Registration method during one of your early class sessions:
- Make sure that you download the most recent version of the iclicker software from the iclicker downloads site and that you extract the files to your hard drive or to your private folder on Netspace. Within the iclicker folder, find the iclicker.exe program file, and double click on that file to launch the iclicker software.
- We are assuming in these instructions that you have already created a course in iclicker and have downloaded your student roster from Banner in order to create an accurate "roster.txt" file. When the iclicker window opens, click on the appropriate class, and click on the Start new session button:
- Before you begin the Roll call registration, make sure that all of your students set their clickers to the proper frequency – the two-letter frequency you chose when modifying the settings for your course. Each student needs to hold the orange power button down on the clicker until the code flashes, then s/he needs to enter the two-letter frequency code that matches the code you chose for your receiver. (The clicker will retain that code for the semester.)
- When the iclicker control bar appears (after you launch the software and begin the session), click on the gear icon on the far right of the bar, and click on “Roll call registration”:
- Assuming that you have a proper roster.txt file, your students’ names will appear in separate cells, with the last name displayed prominently in bold face. The first name will be in a smaller font. In the bottom-right corner of the cell for each student will usually be a two-letter code (or a three-letter code if you have more than 25 students in your course), a different code for each student. Each student will need to press the buttons for that two-letter (or three-letter) code on his/her clicker remote. Once that happens, the ID number on the back of that student’s clicker will appear in the student’s box onscreen:
- For large courses, you may have more than one group of names that will appear on the screen for 30-second intervals, before the next group is shown. Once all the students have registered their clickers, click the Close button in the bottom-right corner of the screen. iclicker will record the registrations and then close out the list of names.
.
Please note that if you had multiple students who were absent on the day that you did the Roll Call Registration or if multiple students added your course after that day, you could do the Roll Call Registration in class a second time. The software retains all the registrations it has received, so only the missing students would need to enter codes the second time. If you don’t want to waste course time registering additional students, you can also use a "Loan clicker" command that allows you to assign a particular clicker to a student. You would need the student to meet you in your office with his/her clicker in hand or to stop by the front of the classroom briefly at the end of class, and then you can assign that eight-character clicker ID (on the small bar code just above the battery compartment) to the student.