Upgrade to New Clicker Software is Required, Not Recommended

As DoIT announced previously, the Turning Technologies (TT) student response system software (a.k.a clickers) has been upgraded to version 5.2.1 this summer.  All current receivers and student clickers are compatible with the new software. However, only the new 5.2.1 version of the software is now installed on lecture hall computers, which had a “permissions” issue yesterday that has been fixed. In addition, only the new 5.2.1 version integrates with the Blackboard grade center.

As a result, we should have announced that the new software upgrade was required for all faculty, whether or not they use the TT software on a lecture hall or on their own laptops. We can't easily support multiple versions of software and use cases (LH computer vs. laptop). In addition, we should have sent this to the UMBC “clickers” email listerserve that is manually updated with email addresses of faculty who require their students to buy clickers at the bookstore. In retrospect, this was an oversight on our part. We apologize and will try to improve our communication going forward.

Background

The new 5.2.1 TT software has been out for a year, but it was released too late for the start of the Fall 2012 semester. In addition, it included a new Mac version that didn't work with our UMBC authentication. By January 2013, the Mac authentication still did not work, so we did not push it out for the Spring 2013 semester. We also didn’t want to do so in the middle of the academic year. We worked on the authentication issue over the summer and announced the new software availability through our update on 8/19.

In addition to our own FAQ, TT offers a webinar on the new software, which has a different initial interface (or "splash screen"), but is essentially the same once you select the TP Anywhere option. Our TT rep has also offered to come to campus for training on the new software on Friday, September 13 (time & location TBA). Finally, there are quite a few other resources we've added to our UMBC Clickers FAQ collection:

Recorded webinars:

• Anywhere Polling

• PowerPoint Polling PC

• Powerpoint Polling Mac

Tutorials

http://www.turningtechnologies.com/tutorials

Training Documents

http://www.turningtechnologies.com/training-documents

If you have questions or need assistance, please visit the www.umbc.edu/clickers FAQ collection or submit an RT (Request Tracker) support request on the myUMBC “Help” menu or directly at my.umbc.edu/help.