Using Turning Technologies, how can I export student response data to Oncourse CL?

If your students are using Turning Technologies student response devices (clickers) in your class, you can export the scores that students earn in class to the Oncourse CL Gradebook. Before completing the steps in this document, download TurningPoint 2008 for PC with Oncourse CL integration from IUware. You also need to either create a PowerPoint presentation using TurningPoint, or use TurningPoint to add polling questions to an existing PowerPoint presentation, before you collect data in class.

Note: Exporting the results of a class session to Oncourse CL from within TurningPoint 2008 will create a new gradebook item. For points gradebooks, the item will have a point value equal to the maximum number of points possible in the TurningPoint session. For percentage gradebooks, the maximum number of points possible in the session will be the relative weight of the item. Currently, it is not possible to delete gradebook items created by the Turning Technologies Oncourse CL tool or to edit gradebook item settings other than whether the item is released to students or included in the course grade calculations. As a work-around, you can generate a spreadsheet of your class data and upload the grades as you would with any other spreadsheet, allowing you full control over the gradebook item; see instructions below.

On this page:

• Before class: Importing a participant list
• During class: Polling
• After class: Exporting results to Oncourse CL
  • Merging files
  • Exporting to Oncourse CL
  • Importing scores from a spreadsheet

Importing a participant list

You can export your class roster from Oncourse CL and import the resulting participant list (a .tpl file) into your PowerPoint presentation in advance, or you can skip this step and allow the TurningPoint software to generate an automatic participant list with the device IDs of students present in class; when you upload the scores to Oncourse CL, the device IDs will be matched with the names of students who have registered their devices in your class. Note the following:

• The .tpl file generated from a combined Oncourse CL site includes students in all sections of a course. If you have multiple sections in a combined course that you wish to track separately, you may want to use the automatic participant list instead. If you do use the .tpl file, you will need to save the session data for each session separately and then merge them before uploading to Oncourse CL. See instructions below.
  
  
• You may wish to use the .tpl file if you want to generate more detailed reports within the TurningPoint software, since the .tpl file contains the students' names. Using the automatic participant list will result in reports with only device IDs; responses will only be linked to students' names within Oncourse CL, not TurningPoint.
  
  
• If you intend to upload scores from a spreadsheet instead of directly from TurningPoint (for instance, if you want to be able to change the settings for the gradebook item), use the .tpl file.

To import a participant list from Oncourse CL:

1. From the menubar of your Oncourse CL course site, click Turning Technologies.
   
   
2. Click Export Roster in TurningPoint Format. When prompted, save the resulting file to your desktop (or another location you will remember).
   
   
3. In TurningPoint 2008, open the PowerPoint file you will use in your class presentation, and click the TurningPoint 2008 tab.
   
   
4. Click Participants, and select Import a Participant List. Select your participant list, and then click Open.
   
   
5. On the right, in the drop-down menu under "Participant List", select the course participant list.
   
   
6. Select Reset, and then select Session.

Back to top

Polling

To collect clicker data in class:

1. Run your PowerPoint slide show using TurningPoint 2008. From the Slide Show tab, click From the Beginning.

   Note: Students can respond with their clickers when the "polling:open" box appears green.

2. Before leaving the classroom, save your session data. If you are using a classroom computer, be sure to save this file onto removable media. To do so, click Save Session. (You will also be prompted to save, if you haven't already, when you quit the software.) The session file will have a .tpz extension.

Back to top

Exporting results to Oncourse CL

Merging files (for multiple sections using the .tpl file as the participant list only)

If your class consists of multiple sections that do not meet at one time and place, you need to save the session file of each class meeting as a separate .tpz file. If you use the automatic participant list, or if your class consists of only one section, skip to the next section. If you exported your Oncourse CL roster and you have multiple sections, first merge the various .tpz files from each section into a single file:

1. In TurningPoint, select Tools, then Session Management, and then Merge Session Files.
   
   
2. Select all the files you need to merge, and then click Merge. Save the file with a new filename.

Then follow the instructions in the next section.

Exporting to Oncourse CL

To transmit the scores to your Oncourse CL Gradebook:

1. In TurningPoint, open your PowerPoint presentation, and on the TurningPoint 2008 tab, select Tools, then Session Management, and then Export CSV.

   Note: The file will actually be a .txt file, not .csv.

2. For the export format, select Sakai, and then click Export. You will see a message indicating that the file exported successfully.
   
   
3. In the menubar of your Oncourse CL course site, click Turning Technologies, and select Import Session File.
   
   
4. Enter a title for the gradebook item to be created, browse to the file, and click Import Session File.

If you have multiple sections, and you use the automatic participant list, repeat these instructions for each additional section. You can upload all the files into the same Gradebook item.

Importing scores from a spreadsheet

As a work-around to import scores from TurningPoint and still retain control over the gradebook item (e.g., the ability to change the relative weight for a percentage gradebook, change grades, or delete the item), use the following method instead of the method described in the previous section.

1. Before class, import a participant list as described above. After class, save your session file as a .tpz file as usual.
   
   
2. In TurningPoint 2008, click Tools and then Reports.
   
   
3. Select Participant Results Reports and then either Graded Participant Results (Point Value) for points gradebooks or Graded Participant Results (Correct/Incorrect) for percentage gradebooks.
   
   
4. Click Generate Report. TurningPoint will save the report in Excel format.
   
   
5. Open the file in Excel, and delete all extraneous information, leaving only two columns, "Sakai Login ID" and "Total Points" or "Total % Correct" (as applicable). Change the column title of "Sakai Login ID" to "Student ID".

   For percentage gradebooks, you also need to remove the percent sign ( % ) from all grades in the "Total % Correct" column. The easiest way to do this is as follows:

   1. In Excel 2007, click Find & Select, and then Replace... . In other versions of Excel, from the Edit menu, click Replace... .
   2. Next to "Find what:", type  % . Next to "Replace with:", type a space. Click Replace All.
   
   
6. Save the file in .csv format.
   
   
7. See Importing grades from a spreadsheet to upload the scores to Oncourse CL.

Back to top

Comments/Questions/Corrections