UMass Boston

Classroom Polling (iClicker)

What is Classroom Polling?

Classroom polling can increase student engagement by allowing students to participate in polls and answer questions about the course material during class. It can be used to facilitate more meaningful and interactive learning experiences, by allowing instructors to:

  • Gauge prior student knowledge, before covering new material.
  • Provide student self assessment opportunities.
  • Encourage student discussion, such as by using iClicker groups.

What is iClicker Cloud?

iClicker Cloud is an audience response system that is used to provide instant feedback to students. Instructors pose meaningful questions to students in class and students respond to questions with mobile devices or physical remotes. iClicker Cloud supports a number of different Polling Question Types. Polling scores can easily be integrated into the Canvas gradebook to allow students credit for class participation and/or performance.

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iClicker Cloud Requirements

Instructors need:

Students need:

*Note that students using iClicker remotes must also create iClicker accounts but do not need to purchase iClicker subscriptions. Students using iClicker remotes must add their Clicker remote IDs to their account profiles.

iClicker Cloud Canvas Setup for Instructors

iClicker Cloud uses the Roster & Grade Sync method for connecting with Canvas. Before continuing with setup, review the steps at Checklist: Getting Started with iClicker Cloud Courses and Instructor Guide: iClicker Cloud Roster & Grade Sync with Canvas.

  1. Register for an iClicker Cloud account (select University of Massachusetts Boston for Primary Institution).
  2. Create a course in iClicker Cloud and fill in the information for your course.
  3. In the course in iClicker, go to Settings > Integrations.
  4. Click Select Connect to Canvas > Go to Canvas > Authorize.
  5. Select the Canvas course from the Course List and click Next. If the course has multiple sections, you will need to select from the sections. Learn more about setting up multi-section courses.
  6. Once the course is connected, you will have the option to complete the roster sync with Canvas immediately or manually at a later time.
  7. You can also adjust the integration settings to sync to a single column in the Canvas gradebook or multiple columns, as well as what happens when a student does not have any iClicker responses.

iClicker Cloud Setup for Students

When connecting your iClicker Cloud course to Canvas, all students with iClicker accounts matching your Canvas roster will automatically be added to the course. Students who do not already have an iClicker account will need to create one. When following the instructor setup steps above, you will be able to select to email students without an account to inform them that they need to create an account.

The following resources can be provided to your students to facilitate this process:

Using the iClicker Attendance Only Feature in the Classroom

iClicker's attendance feature uses geolocation technology to detect whether your students are in class. iClicker attendance is free when instructors set up attendance-only iClicker classes.

Using iClicker Cloud for Remote Instruction

  • How to Create and Manage Assignments in iClicker Cloud. The iClicker assignments feature allows you to create a low stakes quiz from a PowerPoint presentation. The assignments activity type is a flexible, low stakes student engagement solution that can be used for asynchronous learning. Assignments are also great for pre-class, post-class, breakout, or lab activities in synchronous classes.

iClicker Cloud Training Videos

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