PointSolutions (formerly TurningPoint) Audience Response Systems

The Anywhere polling feature allows you to quickly create polls using any app you can use to display an image or text. This allows you to create polls that require a lot less preparation time than polls created using PowerPoint.

While Anywhere polling can be used with both the full desktop app and the TurningPoint Web app, we recommend using the latter app for this feature, as the interface is a little easier to work with and it functions better with the mobile app your students will likely be using. TurningPoint Web is available on MCPHS classroom computers and can be installed on your work PC by putting in a ticket through the Help Desk, at mcphs.service-now.com.

On a home computer, it can be downloaded by logging in to your account at https://instructor.turningtechnologies.com and then clicking on the "download" icon at the top right of your screen (see image below.)

To get started with Anywhere Polling, follow the steps below:

1. Open the TurningPoint Web app.This will bring you to the screen you see below:
   

2. Click the "Start Now" button on the right. You will be prompted log in to your PointSolutions account. Use your MCPHS email and follow the prompts to log-in via SSO.
3. Once logged in, you will be prompted to set up a Mobile Response session (see the dialog box below). You will need to select a course to associate your session with before starting, which you can do by clicking the caret next to where it says "Select a course..." and picking one of the classes you added from your Blackboard account.
   
4. Once a course is selected, click on the checkbox labelled "Enforce Roster" (A in the image below) and then click the "Start" button at the bottom of the dialog box (B).
   
5. At this point, a floating toolbar will appear at the top right of your screen (see image below). Please note the session ID number at the bottom of the toolbar. Your students will need this to log in to your session on their mobile apps.
   
6. Once your session is running, you can open any app and type a question. Clicking "Open" will start polling by showing a screenshot of your desktop to mobile users. The default question type is a multiple choice question with four choices. So, to run a simple multiple choice poll, you could open Word, type a question with four answers labeled A, B, C, and D (see example below), and click "Open."
   
   At this point, students running the mobile app will see both an image of your screen and a set of four choices, A through D.
   
7. If you want to choose a different question type, before clicking "Open", click on the caret next to the "Open" button to get a list of options.
   
8. For a multiple choice question with more (or fewer) options than four, mouse over the "Multiple Choice" option to reveal a second drop-down list that allows you to choose between two and ten answers.
   Once you have selected the number of answers, students would again see a screenshot of your desktop, with the number of answers available matching the selection you made. (Again, they would be labeled A, B, C, etc.)
   
9. There are several additional types of questions you can use in Anywhere polling. For instance, if you want students to answer an open-ended question, you can type one into your preferred app and then choose "Short Answer" from the floating toolbar's options.
   
   In this instance, students would see another screenshot, but would be given a text field to fill out instead of multiple choice buttons.
   
10. Whatever question type you choose, once your question is open, the number of responses will register on the middle of the floating toolbar.
    
    When you have enough responses, you can hit the green "Close" button at the left of the toolbar.
11. Once the question is closed, the toolbar will expand to show a summary of your student's responses as a chart, graphic, or list, depending on question type. Note the two buttons at the top left. The first one (A, in the image below) will toggle between showing you percentages of students who answered a particular way versus the numbers of responses for each choice. The second (B) will allow you to choose a correct answer from the choices selected.
    
12. If you need to ask additional questions, you can reopen polling as many times as needed. When you are done with your class, click the red "X" at the right of the floating toolbar to close your session.
    
13. Before the session closes you will see a dialog box like the one below, giving you a chance to rename the session data that will be saved to your PointSolutions online account. If you don't rename the file, it will just save with the date and time the session ended. Please note: unlike the desktop app, there is no need to save the file locally. Click "Finish" to exit back to the app.
    
14. This should return you to the initial screen you saw on opening the app. If on a classroom computer, be sure to click sign-out before finishing class.
    

To access other additional options for running your poll, click on the ellipsis icon (...) at the top right to select Anywhere polling options.

This will bring up a drop-down menu, where you will be able to add a timer to your poll, ask questions anonymously, or reset the basic preferences for Anywhere polling, among other options.

Response Options

The Response Options are particularly valuable for tailoring your polls to your needs. They are available from the Preferences link from the Additional Options menu.

Once the Preferences dialog box appears, the Response Options can be found at the bottom of  the “Polling”tab (see image below). The items most worth being aware of are as follows:

1. Send a screenshot to participants. This controls whether or not your students see your poll questions on their device. By default, this will be set to "When I open polling" (i.e. your students will see the screenshots), but it can also be set to never, so they are not shown.
2. Default number of answer choices. If you are consistently using the same number of multiple choice answers in your poll questions and it’s not four, you can set a value here. That will change the number of options your students see when you click the “Open” button to start a poll.
3. Points for a correct response. If you want your poll questions to count for credit in Blackboard, you will need to set a value here. The default value for each question is 0.

Be sure to click “Save” after you have made any changes.

Results of your Anywhere polling sessions can be viewed through your PointSolutions online account by taking the following steps:

1. Log in to your instructor account at https://instructor.turningtechnologies.com/
2. From the active courses list, select the course you want to view data from.
   
3. From the page for your course, find the series of tabs at the top, and click on the link labeled "Results."
4. This will bring you to the results page. By clicking the "Sessions" tab (circled in the image below) you can access reports from each of your polling sessions.
   
5. Each report for Anywhere polls will have images of the screenshots shown to students and a summary of the answers given in class.
   
6. If your polls are for credit, your session's results can be uploaded by clicking on the "Gradebook" tab on the Results page (see image below.)
   
7. On this page, you will see a list of your sessions with the individual grades for each of your students. To upload these grades to Blackboard, click on the "Export" button toward the top right of your screen, and from the drop-down menu, select "Blackboard."
   
8. This should bring up the dialog box you see below. To select a session to upload, find its name in the box on the left and click on the checkbox next to it.
   
9. Once you have selected a session to upload, it should appear on the list on the right of the dialog box. At that point you can hit the upload button to upload your grades to Blackboard.