iClicker Cloud is used for real-time feedback in the classroom; faculty and students on the Homewood campus can use iClicker at no cost to conduct formative assessments, take classroom attendance, and more. iClicker synchronizes with Canvas, making it easy to automatically grade your students. A Getting Started guide can be found below; please follow the links to find additional information on the Geofencing feature as well as pedagogical best practices.

Quick Links
Before you begin

Contact CTEI ([email protected]) with any questions. This is especially important for first-time users. The iClicker software has many configuration options, some of which are buried deep in the menu structure. We recommend a short consultation for first-time users. Usually, the entire setup process can be reviewed in about 30 minutes. If you are going to synchronize points to Canvas, we recommend merging all sections of your course. Send a request to [email protected] to facilitate this.

    How does iClicker work?

    All faculty, TAs, and students can create accounts on iClicker.com using Single-Sign-On (JHED). Faculty download a small piece of software to run on the classroom computer. The software does not contain the questions – questions are typically inserted into a Powerpoint, asked verbally, or written on the board. The instructor clicks a button to begin capturing student answers, and the software takes a screenshot of whatever is on the computer screen.

    Students use either their phone with a free app or the iClicker.com website. The CTEI maintains an iClicker website for students that you can reference. Many instructors choose to link to this website from their Canvas site.

    QUICK START GUIDE
    1. Visit iClicker.com; click ‘Create an Account,’ then click ‘Instructor.’ Select Johns Hopkins as your Institution, and you’ll be taken to an SSO login portal.
    1. Click ‘Create New Course’ and configure your course’s settings.
    • Tips:
      • Your Course Discipline and Course Name do not need to match any SIS data; the purpose of these fields is to allow students to find your course when searching iClicker courses.
      • Your Course ID and Term should be as specific as possible, so that students can differentiate your course from similar courses in the same or different terms.
      • CTEI recommends leaving Enrollment as ‘Students can search for and self-enroll in this course’ – this avoids the headache of distributing course invites to all of your students.
      • Setting the Meeting Times is only necessary if you plan to use iClicker to take attendance.
    1. Configure additional course settings by clicking on your newly created course and then clicking ‘Settings.’
    • Tips:
      • Under ‘Devices,’ configure your course for Mobile Devices Only. Physical iClicker Remote are largely deprecated.
      • If you choose to enable ‘Attendance,’ there will automatically be a ‘Question’ for every class session labeled ‘Attendance.’ Enabling Attendance is generally only recommended if you would like to enable Geofencing; otherwise, we recommend leaving Attendance disabled. Please note that attendance does not sync with Canvas.
      • Under ‘Polling,’ you can configure whether or not – as well as when (before or after submitting their answer) – students will be able to see your screen on their devices.
        • If your main goal with iClicker is to monitor and foster student engagement, under ‘Scoring’ (on the ‘Polling’ tab), we recommend a score of 0 for Participation, 0 for a correct response, and 1 for responding.
        • At the bottom of the ‘Polling’ tab, we recommend a short answer time; more than 30 seconds can add distractions and noise to your class.
      • The ‘Quizzing‘ feature is asynchronous and not well suited to assessments. We recommend avoiding Quizzing in iClicker and instead using Canvas quizzes.
      • Lastly, under Integrations, you can link your iClicker course to Canvas. The Canvas sync is not refreshed automatically; grades and enrollments must be synced manually.
    1. Download and install the iClicker software. After launching iClicker on the classroom computer, you’ll be prompted to login with your JHED. You will see a list of the classes you’ve created; click Start Class.
    • Tip: you should practice launching questions prior to your first day of class, before you’ve synced your Canvas roster to iClicker.
    1. Use the iClicker toolbar to launch new poll questions. In the below example, an instructor has written a multiple choice question on a PowerPoint slide; after clicking ‘Poll,’ the instructor can select the ‘Multiple Choice’ option. Students will then be able to answer using their mobile devices. Afterwards, the instructor can choose to show the results to students. Depending on your course settings, students might also see a screenshot of the question on their mobile devices. After class, the results of the poll will be available on iClicker.com, and you can optionally sync student scores to Canvas as a grade.
    • Tips:
      • If you are using a Mac, make sure to test out iClicker before your first class session; Macs have specific privacy settings that can make it difficult for iClicker to capture your screen correctly.
      • You must remember to properly Start and Stop your questions; instructors will sometimes accidentally leave class sessions or open questions running at the end of class, which can cause a number of issues.
      • Until you press Stop when running a question, students will be able to change their answer.
      • Sync your grades to Canvas periodically rather than waiting until the end of the semester.