TurningPoint

As of November 22, all Durham College (DC) faculty members have access to TurningPoint, a polling software solution for interactive participation in the classroom commonly referred to as 'clickers.' DC has used a hardware-based version of TurningPoint for many years. Now that mobile technology is more attainable, TurningPoint has evolved to support the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) model.

What is TurningPoint?

TurningPoint provides live polling and interactive activities for use in the classroom via a web-based polling system or through PowerPoint Integration.

Why use TurningPoint?

You may be using different polling technologies in your classroom, such as Mentimeter, Socrative, NearPod, Kahoot, Tophat, and others. The benefit of using TurningPoint is that it is paid for by the college and supported by our service desk. Having consistency in tool usage for students is also a benefit, given that students will not have to learn how to use the tool each time it is used.

What are some examples of how TurningPoint could be used in the classroom?

Interactive polling software can be used for many different use cases to help you achieve specific outcomes in your teaching. For example:

• Creating an active learning environment ;
• Encouraging participation from all students in a large class;
• Engaging students with competitions;
• Preparing for a test with practice questions;
• Checking for understanding of a topic;
• Monitoring attendance; and
• Applying case studies to promote critical thinking.

Looking for support on creating good questions to use for polling students? Here is a great resource: An Instructors Guide to the Effective Use of Personal Response Systems (Clickers) in Teaching

Want to use TurningPoint in your class?

We are piloting a process to share licences across the college. This pilot will assign licences for a duration of one week, one week at a time. There is no limit to the number of requests you can make in a semester. For example, if you want to use TurningPoint in every class for the week, you would need to request the licences on a Friday for the following week.

Getting Started with TurningPoint

After obtaining licences for your class, here are the next steps:

1. Download and install TurningPoint Desktop. You can also use the online version but note that some features are limited and may only exist in the destop version.
2. If you would like to incorporate TurningPoint into your PowerPoints, here are some quick help topics to get you started:
• Inserting a polling slide
• Running a slideshow, Also check out the quick PDF guide.
• Saving a PowerPoint Session
3. If you would like to use the Anywhere Polling feature check out these help topics
4. If you would like to use the Self-Paced Polling feature check out these help topics

Pro Tip: Check out their interactive manual where you can search for any help topics.

Frequently Asked Questions