Faculty can use clickers to gauge understanding and to poll for opinions. Faculty report that they can increase student interaction using clickers. One teaching strategy is to pose a question and then display the results. If there is a wide variety in the answers, the faculty member can ask students to form groups to discuss the question. After the discussion the students can respond again. Faculty can also use clickers to take attendance.

1. Faculty need to have a laptop computer in the classroom with the PRS software installed on it. Faculty can download the software from the web. The PRS system works with both PC and Macintosh.

2. Faculty need to have a receiver. All faculty who ordered clickers through the UD Bookstore before July 31st, have received a "free" receiver to test their questions ahead of time and/or to take into smaller classrooms where receivers are not installed. Any faculty member adopting clickers after July 31, 2006, should contact Janet de Vry to make arrangements to obtain a receiver.

3. Faculty need their students to purchase clickers. Faculty should submit a clicker order through the Bookstore. The cost to students is slightly less than $47.00. To order, go to WebForms and select "Textbook Adoption Form." Fill out the required information. Under Textbook information, go to "Title," and enter "Clicker" and then go to "Publisher" and enter "GTCO CalComp." For any other required field enter "NA." This order not only facilitates the clicker order, but enables IT staff to provide support. Initially all faculty who order will be added to the PRS mailing list. See Clickers-PRS Mailing List.

Where possible, all classrooms on central scheduling that seat 75 students or more have PRS Receivers installed in the AV cabinet or podium. Look for a beige plate labeled "PRS" in red. A special beige USB cable should be attached or stored in the AV cabinet. There are other classrooms with the receiver installed, check the PRS classroom list for all available classrooms.

The Interwrite PRS User's Guide recommends that the receiver be installed in the order of the steps below. See p. 27 of the printed text or p. 37 of the online guide for further information. NOTE: If you are using a classroom with the receiver already installed, you will just need to plug the beige flat USB A connector into an available USB port on your computer and then turn on your laptop.

1. Plug the Power Supply into a wall or power strip outlet.
2. Plug the other end of the Power Supply into the RF Receiver.
3. Plug the square USB B connector into the RF Receiver.
4. Plug the flat USB A connector into an available USB port on your computer or USB hub.
5. Turn on your laptop.

The RF Receiver is automatically assigned to a COM Port and that information is communicated to the PRS software, so there is no need to set the COM Port on the Connection Menu.

Faculty who would like to associate their student's names and UDelNet IDs in their PRS Roster can do so with a conversion program. This program takes the UD IDs from your existing PRS class roster and matches it up with the corresponding names and UDelNet IDs (Net IDs). Step by step instructions if needed are available to help you with this process.

Step by step instructions are available for faculty who would like to export the PRS gradebook to WebCT. There is also a training course, Clickers: Working with the Data where staff will guide you through this process. See the Professional Development calendar for upcoming sessions.

We have learned recently that UD IDs will not be on your SIS class rosters until after the drop/add period. Listed below are the overall steps needed to add UD IDs to your SIS Roster.  If you want more specific instructions please contact the IT-Help Center or wait until after drop/add September 13.

1. Request a class roster
   UD Homepage > Faculty > Web Forms on right
   Blanks tab
   Class Roster Request
   Fill in form, specify "Text" mailing method, and submit request

2. Copy text from e-mail from Registrar and paste into a text file. Remove all extraneous lines, keeping just the individual student records.

3. Read the text file into Excel > Open files of type Text
   Specify Fixed width format.
  Delete all columns except for the UDelNet ID.

4. Insert a new column as column 1.
  Make a lowercase UDelNet ID column by using the
  LOWER function with the UDelNet ID to create a new column.

5. Insert a new row as row 1. Label column 1 - UDelNet ID and column 2 - upper. Note: UDelNet ID must be spelled with the correct capitalization and space.

6. Save as .csv file

7. Use conversion program
 
8. Save as text file with .csv extension

9. This .csv file can be uploaded to WebCT to match the UD IDs with the appropriate User IDs (UDelNet IDs) already on the WebCT Roster.

The following training sessions are periodically available—check on the Professional Development calendar for when classes are scheduled, class descriptions and registration.

• Clickers: Experience It Yourself
• Clickers: PRS Basic Features
• Clickers: Working with the Data
• Clickers: PRS Advanced Features

There is always live training available via the web and telephone from the vendor. Click here to review the schedule and to register for a radio frequency (RF) PRS session.

There is a Clickers-PRS mailing list available for faculty interested. This list is a private list of faculty using clickers at UD in their teaching and User Services staff.

This list is meant to be informative, helpful and useful as a resource. It will provide a means for User Services to communicate with all clicker users. More importantly, it is an avenue where faculty can ask questions, share ideas and gather suggestions regarding the use of clickers in classrooms.

If you are unfamiliar with mailing lists, information regarding how to use or join can be found at http://udel.edu/mailman/listinfo/clickers-prs.

A faculty committee staffed by IT/User Services and the Office of Educational Assessment has recommended campus-wide standardization on PRS InterWrite personal response systems or "clickers" from GTCO CalComp. The University has signed an agreement with the vendor to make PRS InterWrite the officially supported "clicker."

This standardization means that students will need to purchase only one clicker for their entire university career. There will be no additional course registration fee. In addition, the committee found this model to offer superior functionality to others in the market and this clicker is independent of any particular textbook publisher.

This agreement does not prohibit faculty from using competing clicker systems. It does mean that this is the only clicker system that IT/User Services will support.

A program evaluation for the use of clickers on campus is underway. Information on the process of implementing, supporting and assessing this new technology is available by clicking here.

Any troubleshooting issues or questions that arise when using the software or connecting with the receivers that need addressing will be listed here.

• If you see a warning message stating that it may not function properly or alter window’s function -> you may ignore the warning. (Some anti-spyware or anti-virus programs may give a warning like this.)

• If you see a Windows Security Alert asking whether you want to keep blocking this program, Memo: Java. You should select “Unblock”.

• You may receive a message and pop ups for the Found New Hardware Wizard when connecting with a receiver. If you are unsure what to do, click on this PDF link which will give you the necessary instructions.

• Some clickers purchased by students come with a default student ID (e.g. ABCDETF).  If the students have not changed the ID and try to login for a class, you will get an error message for every clicker using the same ID.  It doesn't effect those that have logged in with a proper ID, but it is a nuisance because you have to deal with the messages. It is imperative that students put in their UD ID before joining a class. They will not get credit for their responses if they do not put in their valid ID. The students can use the video or other resources available if they still have questions.

• At this time, PRS 4.10 does not work with Windows Vista.  Aside from driver issues with the receiver the application itself will not run, so it cannot even be used for analyzing data off-line collected from a compatible machine.  For this reason we don't recommend upgrading classroom laptops to Vista if you are using clickers.

• At this time, Under Windows XP with Office 2007, PRS does appear to work in PowerPoint 2007.  The toolbar is gone, but accessible through the "Add-ins" tab.  Even so, we do not recommend faculty run PRS under PowerPoint 2007, as it's not officially supported by Interwrite yet: http://www.interwritelearning.com/support/prs/rf/index.html

Faculty can use their keyboard as a virtual clicker for testing. In order to do so you must create a fake IR and RF class for testing, rather than an RF class, and choose this fake class rather than your real class when starting your session. The keyboard can only be used to test multiple choice questions.

Firmware updater for PRS hubs lets receivers work from USB power only so you don't have to plug in the AC adapter. (WinXP only) To update your receiver for this capability, please click here for step by step instructions.