iClicker for CS484/684

Class participation mark (5% of the class total) will be based on iClicker polls during lectures. Such surprize-polls will not be announced in advance and will happen approximately once a week (could be less or more frequent). Typically, each poll will be a single multiple-choice question, which can be stated either verbally (e.g. for yes/no questions) or written on a board/slide stating the multiple-choise options. The questions will be related to the material presented immediately prior to the poll and you should be in class to participate. The polls may take place starting the second lecture. You will be given at least 30 seconds to answer the poll question. The main aim of such polls is to obtain an instant feedback, but also to get class participation records. Each correct response earns 1 performance point, incorrect response earns 0.75 performance point, but no response earns zero. Note that iClicker also separately collects "particiapation points" for answering at least one poll during each class session, but those are ignored for CS484/684 grading. The final iCklicker mark (out of 100) will be based on your total performance points as indicated by the formula below allowing 20\% slack, in part designed to accomodate for sickness etc. There will be no other forms of accomodation.

min{ 100, 120*(performance points/number of polls) }

To participate in the polls, you should first join CS484/684 on iClicker cloud using the link below.

NOTE1: It is student's responsibility to make sure that the first and last names for your iClicker account are identical to your names on LEARN. Your iCLicker account should also have your uwaterloo user ID specified. Failure to follow these requirements can make it impossible to match your iCLicker points with the records on LEARN at the end of the course. This creates a risk that your final grade will not include any participation marks.

NOTE2: if you use a remote - you still have to register below and to specify your name and remote ID. Otherwise, your remote's iCklicker records will remain anponymous; I will only see a participating Remote ID withour any name. In this case, you will not get your credit at the end of the class. Read more in the last two paragraphs below.

https://join.iclicker.com/IASN    (REGISTRATION for the course on iClicker, needs to be done only once at the beginning of the term)

You will be prompted to sign-in to an existing iClicker cloud account, or to create a new account. Newly created accounts will automatically get a free trial "polling" subscription allowing you to participate in the polls for the first two weeks. The class registration needs to be done only once at the beginning of the term. Then, for the duration of the whole semester, you can use either an iClicker remote, or iClicker student app on your phone, or iClicker student web-app on your laptop. You can find instructions on using the remote or the apps here or on iClicker's youtube channel.

In case you have a recent version of iClicker remote (iClicker2 or iClicker+, check out the campus store for pricing and availability), it should include a five year polling subscription (allowing you to use remote, phone app, and web-app). If you do not want to buy a remote and, instead, use only a phone app or a web-app from your laptop, past the first two weeks of the free trial after your iClicker account registration, you have to pay a small fee to extend the polling subscription to six-months. All subscription plans are listed here. Note that you should bring either remote, phone, or a laptop to each class to be able to participate in the polls. If you plan to use a phone or a laptop, install the iClicker phone-app or bookmark the web-app on your browser in advace, so that you can participate in a poll in class on a short notice.

If you plan to use iClicker remote, besides registering to the course on iClicker (as above), you must have your remote ID added into the iClicker Student Web-App, see video instructions here. Otherwise, your poll responses remain anonyumous and can not be added to the CS484/684 grade book to receive the credit. This works only with newer versions of the remote: iClicker2 or iClicker+. In case you have an old version of iClicker remote, you can not use it for CS484/684. Instead, you should use iClicker apps on your phone/laptop, or to buy a newer remote.