I don’t know a way to poll students through Blackboard itself unless the students have iClickers, which are handheld devices (people often call them ‘wands’ or ‘clickers’) into which the students enter their responses. Some colleges or departments have sets of the wands that they lend out; others require their students to purchase wands.
The instructor has a ‘base station’ attached to his or her presentation computer. The questions have already been created in a PowerPoint presentation (although the instructor can also ask a question ‘on the fly’.) If the instructor is just asking for anonymous responses, this is all they need to do.
If the instructor wants to record responses tied to individual students, to use for attendance or grading for example, the wands must be registered, where you match the serial number of the wand to a specific student. This is how iClickers work with Blackboard. The iClicker tool in Blackboard provides a way to register the wands with the students enrolled in the class.
This tool appears to be for connecting the students’ devices to the Grade Center and running some reports. Blackboard does not appear to help the instructor to create any questions within lectures or anything like that.
Identify who you will be borrowing the instructor unit from or who is responsible for troubleshooting if it is built into a presentation station.
To get started with iClickers, you will need to get the program (which is on a special USB drive that comes with the instructor unit) and create the questions in your lesson (or learn how to ask questions ‘on the fly’.)
(August 2015)
These are links to the i>Clicker .zip package that contain an updated LMS_Wizard.xml file. Download whichever one you need. Please uninstall the existing i>Clicker software on your computer.
Mac
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vzmnsqej191q7wb/U-SC_iclicker_mac7.zip?dl=0
Windows
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cqwpihysxd1c4qv/U-SC_iclicker_win7.zip?dl=0
WinMac – The WinMac version is for faculty who use both Windows and Mac.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t4v0vv8m8v12wm1/U-SC_iclicker_winmac7.zip?dl=0
College of Education - contact Teri DeBruhl
Statistics
Political Science - contact Chuck F.
Geography