Looking for ways to increase classroom engagement? Want to poll your students during a lecture but can’t think of how to do it without chaos ensuing? Want to take attendance with one click? Considering throwing your current clicker across the room?
Time to meet Top Hat. (No, we are not playing dress-up. It’s a real thing.)
Top Hat is a “web-based student response system that allows instructors to create an interactive lecture experience for students. Use Top Hat to poll students, present discussion prompts, display lecture material, track attendance, and sync grades with Carmen.” Top Hat does not HAVE to be used with Carmen, but if you have some course content in Carmen already, integration is nice as it will automatically populate your Carmen classlist into Top Hat.
Here are some magical things Top Hat can do:
- Present information (there are three ways to do this) and then have students respond to what they just learned, either IMMEDIATELY or at a LATER DATE AND TIME that you determine
- Ask questions and get REAL TIME replies
- Take ATTENDANCE with one easy quick click
- Create ANONYMOUS discussions
- Create Top Hat grades items in Carmen by SYNCING TOP HAT GRADEBOOK with Carmen Gradebook
Want to learn more about what it can do and how to use it? Check out the links below or just go to ODEE’s Top Hat Resource Page or the”How the Heck Do I Do That?” page of this blog for a complete list of tutorial videos. There are also some great resources for students as well.
MY JOB SPECIAL OFFER
If you are interested in using Top Hat in your class and
- Want some one-on one consultation and/or
- Would like me to come to one of your classes and help you use Top Hat (that’s right, I will COME TO THE CLASS OF YOUR CHOICE and RUN TOP HAT for you)
- Want another kitten video
Send me an email – murphy.1527 or stop by 380F. Feel free to bring chocolate.
Continue reading Getting your students to respond or “throw those clickers away”