Instructors constantly search for ways to interact with students and keep them engaged in class, through even the lengthiest of lectures. As crowded as our lives have become with mobile devices and computers, it is important to remain open to new possibilities of interaction and in-class participation. Traditional methods of taking attendance and asking in-class questions can easily be tracked, augmented, and woven into your course with these devices, providing a learning experience of multifaceted interactions. Instructional Technologies currently supports two student response systems that facilitate such communication: iClicker and Top Hat.
Both iClicker and Top Hat offer hardware, software, or hybrid solutions for delivering content, taking attendance, polling/quizzing, and in-class communication. Their platforms also integrate seamlessly with Canvas. This means that attendance and in-class polls/discussions can be set up to factor automatically into a student’s grade. While both companies offer solutions for similar cases, they also present distinct systems that cater to your courses in different ways.
Some students and instructors may already be familiar with iClicker because it has been around longer than Top Hat. iClicker offers either standalone software or hybrid software/hardware systems for facilitating student interaction and taking attendance. Its online system, Reef, is available for students to participate via their mobile devices as well.
In contrast, Top Hat is solely software based. Its system works online across computers and mobile devices and is completely cross-platform. Top Hat also allows the instructor to create interactive virtual textbooks and lessons and save them to an online personal or public library.
One interesting feature both systems share is GPS Attendance, a feature that uses the GPS components within students’ mobile devices to check for attendance. Attendance tracking can be difficult and time-consuming without these systems, but now, with the click of a button, instructors are able to ping every student in the class and get an instant reading of who’s missing.
As mentioned earlier, these platforms share similarities but they also differ in many ways. Our Additional Tools page provides more info on pricing, features, and points of contact for iClicker and Top Hat. Both companies offer discounted pricing for students as well as pilots and demos for attendance. If you have any questions, reach out to us by submitting a Help Desk ticket or by contacting the listed company representatives directly.