TurningPoint Clickers: Setting up and Using
Opening Software & Adding
Questions
1. Make sure TurningPoint is
downloaded on the host computer
(in the classroom). The icon should
look like this: (It should NOT have
2008 underneath it):
2. Open the software and choose
“Polling” tab and “PowerPoint
Polling”.
3. Choose “File” and “Open” and
open up your pre-existing
PowerPoint (with your content
slides already created)
Notice that TurningPoint looks like
PowerPoint except there is another
ribbon with a tab “TurningPoint”.
4. Find where you want to insert your clicker question slide and on the
TurningPoint ribbon, choose “New” and “Multiple Choice”.
5. Type in the question into the slide on the “Enter Question Text” section.
Put in your answer choices under “A”, “B”, etc. (as you “enter” under “a”, it
will give you the “b” option to add text).
6. On the left side of the
question slide, you will see a
blue bar. Choose (from the
letters a-d), which is the correct
answer. It will mark the others
as incorrect answers.
Adding Correct Answer Indicator
(Optional)
7. After doing the polling, you
can set it so the correct answer
will be indicated (by a blinking
rectangle, smiley face, etc.)
To add this, choose
“TurningPoint” tab, “Objects”,
“Correct Answer Indicator” and
pick the type of indicator you
want to appear after the polling
is complete.
Adding a Countdown Clock (Optional)
8. You can also add a countdown clock so that the students are given a
countdown and the polling stops automatically after the timing.
Choose “TurningPoint” tab and “Objects” and “Countdown” and
“Clock”.
9. Click on the number in the clock and on the far right side you can
edit the amount of seconds given to answer the question.
Now you are finished adding your
clicker questions in to a pre-existing
PowerPoint. Make sure to save the
PowerPoint (perhaps with another
name [like “with clickers”]).
Using the Clickers in the Classroom
10. In your package, you should have a
white flashdrive. Plug that into the USB of
the host/classroom computer.
11. Open up TurningPoint on the host computer (remember- it
shouldn’t have 2008) on it and should look like this:
12. Go to the “TurningPoint Ribbon” and choose “Receiver”.
13. In the popup, choose “Connections” and choose a connection (#) in the first dropdown (or you can just leave it as
whatever is by default).
14. Give the students the
clickers. They will need to make
sure they are on the same
connection/channel as the host
computer. So, in the class, we
are on channel 40 (as indicated
in step #13). The students’
clicker should also have “40” in
the response box. If not, they
need to choose:
-Channel button
-Type 40 using keys
-Channel button again.
(They should see a green light)
15. When you run the slide in slideshow view and get to a question slide, the response bar will appear. Click enter
once to open the polling.
16. Students will then input their answer by selecting the letter on their
clicker.
If you have a countdown, the polling will close after the allotted amount of
time. If you don’t have a countdown, press “enter” again to close the polling.
17. Press “Enter” again to show the graph of answers (how many answered with each letter). Press enter again to
show the correct answer (if you included a correct answer indicator). Press Enter again to move to the next slide.
If you need to reset the polling session for that question, choose the refresh arrow.
If you are using this tool for student engagement, you don’t
want to save changes or clicker data when you close the
program. Make sure to take the white USB turning point
receiver with you when you leave the classroom.
When do I click?
1. Enter to start polling on the slide
2. Enter to start countdown (if included)
3. Enter to end polling (if don’t have countdown- if have countdown,
polling will end on its own)
4. Enter to see results
5. Enter to see correct answer (if included)
6. Enter to go to next slide