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
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
.tplfile 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.tplfile, 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
.tplfile if you want to generate more detailed reports within the TurningPoint software, since the.tplfile 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
.tplfile.
To import a participant list from Oncourse CL:
- From the menubar of your Oncourse CL course
site, click
Turning Technologies.
- Click
Export Roster in TurningPoint Format. When prompted, save the resulting file to your desktop (or another location you will remember).
- In TurningPoint 2008, open the PowerPoint file you will use in
your class presentation, and click the
TurningPoint 2008tab.
- Click
Participants, and selectImport a Participant List. Select your participant list, and then clickOpen.
- On the right, in the drop-down menu under "Participant List", select the
course participant list.
- Select
Reset, and then selectSession.
Polling
To collect clicker data in class:
- Run your PowerPoint slide show using TurningPoint 2008. From the
Slide Showtab, clickFrom the Beginning.Note: Students can respond with their clickers when the "polling:open" box appears green.
- 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.tpzextension.
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:
- In TurningPoint, select
Tools, thenSession Management, and thenMerge Session Files.
- 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:
- In TurningPoint, open your PowerPoint presentation, and on the
TurningPoint 2008tab, selectTools, thenSession Management, and thenExport CSV.Note: The file will actually be a
.txtfile, not.csv. - For the export format, select
Sakai, and then clickExport. You will see a message indicating that the file exported successfully.
- In the menubar of your Oncourse CL course site, click
Turning Technologies, and selectImport Session File.
- 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.
- Before class, import a participant list as described above. After class, save your session file as a
.tpzfile as usual.
- In TurningPoint 2008, click
Toolsand thenReports.
- Select
Participant Results Reportsand then eitherGraded Participant Results (Point Value)for points gradebooks orGraded Participant Results (Correct/Incorrect)for percentage gradebooks.
- Click
Generate Report. TurningPoint will save the report in Excel format.
- 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:- In Excel 2007, click
Find & Select, and thenReplace.... In other versions of Excel, from theEditmenu, clickReplace.... - Next to "Find what:", type
%. Next to "Replace with:", type a space. ClickReplace All.
- In Excel 2007, click
- Save the file in
.csvformat.
- See Importing grades from a spreadsheet to upload the scores to Oncourse CL.
Last modified on November 10, 2009.







