Tutor guide to TurningPoint 5
(Clickers)
This guide includes:

An overview of Turning Point 5

Information on the clickers booking form

Instructions on how to create interactive voting slides

Guidance on setting up and running clickers presentations

Information on saving data and running reports
September 2014
Centre for Academic Practice
Queen Margaret University
QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
Contents
1.
Overview of TurningPoint 5 ................................................................................ 4
2.
Booking clickers and dongles at QMU ................................................................ 4
3.
Using TurningPoint ............................................................................................. 5
4.
TurningPoint 5 - important tips ........................................................................... 5
5.
Opening TurningPoint on a QMU computer ........................................................ 6
6.
The TurningPoint menu ...................................................................................... 7
7.
Help for TurningPoint ......................................................................................... 8
8.
Creating TurningPoint slides .............................................................................. 8
8.1 Creating a multiple choice TurningPoint slide .................................................. 8
The slide is now ready to be used in the presentation. .......................................... 9
8.2 Different types of TurningPoint slides .............................................................. 9
8.2.1 Priority ranking ......................................................................................................... 9
8.2.2 Likert Scale................................................................................................................ 9
8.2.3 Moment to moment ................................................................................................. 9
8.2.4 Picture slides............................................................................................................. 9
8.3 Changing the bullet format next to answer options ........................................ 10
9.
Displaying results using charts ......................................................................... 10
9.1 Selecting a chart ............................................................................................ 10
9.2 Customising the chart .................................................................................... 10
9.3 Showing/hiding the chart ............................................................................... 11
9.3.1 Hiding all charts ...................................................................................................... 11
9.3.2 Hiding selected charts ............................................................................................ 11
10.
Additional features under the Insert Object menu ......................................... 12
10.1 Prompt (Answer Now) indicator ................................................................... 12
10.2 Countdown indicator .................................................................................... 12
10.2.1 Inserting a countdown indicator ................................................................ 12
10.2.2 Changing the times of the countdown indicator......................................... 13
10.3 Correct answer indicator .............................................................................. 14
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
11.
Demographic comparison slides ................................................................... 14
11.1 Creating a demographic slide ...................................................................... 14
11.2 A worked example of a demographic comparison........................................ 15
11.3 Displaying a demographic assignment slide ................................................ 17
12.
Comparison slides ........................................................................................ 17
13.
Setting up and testing presentations ............................................................. 17
14.
Running a presentation with TurningPoint .................................................... 18
14.1 Moving the task bar ..................................................................................... 19
15.
Saving the TurningPoint data collected during a presentation ...................... 19
16.
TurningPoint reports ..................................................................................... 19
16.1 Running reports ........................................................................................... 20
16.1.1 Running a report with a current TurningPoint Presentation ....................... 20
16.1.2 Running a report from a saved TurningPoint presentation ........................ 20
16.2 Exporting reports ......................................................................................... 22
17.
Polling Anywhere .......................................................................................... 22
18.
Team competitions ....................................................................................... 24
18.1 Creating teams ............................................................................................ 24
18.2 Creating slides displaying team results (Team Leader Board) ..................... 24
19.
FAQ’s ........................................................................................................... 24
Do I need to add a new slide to show the results? ............................................... 24
Why doesn’t the clicker work? ............................................................................. 24
Will my presentations in TurningPoint 2008 work in TurningPoint 5? ................... 25
Why don’t clickers work when they are used in adjacent classrooms? ................ 26
Do clickers work with an embedded video or animation?..................................... 26
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
1. Overview of TurningPoint 5
Turning Point is an electronic voting system which is available in all teaching rooms
and lecture theatres at QMU. TurningPoint is based on Microsoft PowerPoint and
enables the creation of interactive voting slides for use in class. When an interactive
slide appears in a presentation, the audience is able to select their voting choice by
pressing their keypad, commonly called a “Clicker”. The votes are received by means
of a USB radio frequency receiver or “dongle”. The results of the poll are then
displayed graphically on the same slide.
2. Booking clickers and dongles at QMU
QMU currently has 280 clickers and 8 dongles. Clickers can be booked using the
online booking form, which is available through thin client and Citrix on the CAP
intranet page at:
http://apps/capforms/Clickerbooking.asp
By clicking Return to Booking Menu users can view the Clickers Diary which
details all clickers’ bookings across QMU for the current Semester. There is also a
link which allows users to view any bookings that they have made personally: View
My Clickers Bookings. Tutors can then collect their clickers and dongle from the
LRC issue desk at the appropriate time.
Please note:



For each booking you need one dongle and as many clickers as appropriate.
If you have a class at 9.15am, you may collect the dongle and clickers the
day before if the clickers are not being used on the previous day from the
LRC.
Always check when booking that no one has booked clickers in a classroom
adjacent to you at the same time. If two or more tutors use clickers in
classrooms that are near to each other, the results received will be confused
by the system.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
3. Using TurningPoint
The typical workflow for a tutor using TurningPoint 5 is indicated below:
Create > Save > Edit > Test > Run in Class > Save Response Data (optional) >
Reuse and / or Edit. We discuss each of these stages below.
4. TurningPoint 5 - important tips
It is important to understand some aspects of using TurningPoint 5 at QMU.
You create and edit TurningPoint 5 presentations outwith thin client/remote desktop.
Use a computer within QMU or download the free software to your PC or Mac from:
http://www.turningtechnologies.com/responsesystemsupport/downloads.







TurningPoint 5 presentations can only run properly on a ‘real’ PC such as
those in the QMU lecture theatres and classrooms where TurningPoint 5
is installed.
Always install the dongle and then open TurningPoint 5.
You should test each presentation or edited presentation in the QMU
lecture theatres and classrooms that have a real PC together with the
dongle installed and some clickers to see that the system is receiving
votes properly. This also tests if your personal QMU profile is working
properly on that particular PC – there can be variations on different
computers.
TurningPoint 5 is based on PowerPoint but is not the same as
PowerPoint. A common error is that tutors open PowerPoint and create a
presentation that does not work as a TurningPoint presentation.
Before creating or editing a TurningPoint presentation you must make
sure that PowerPoint is closed
It is good practice to make sure PowerPoint is closed and then launch
TurningPoint from the start menu and then open any existing TurningPoint
presentations or create a new one from the File menu.
Do not embed a video or use an animation, as these will interfere with
TurningPoint and may cause your presentation not to run.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
5. Opening TurningPoint on a QMU computer
Turning Point can be opened from the Start menu / All Programs / Turning Point /
TurningPoint. It is important that you close all PowerPoint presentations before
opening TurningPoint. Failure to do so might mean that PowerPoint rather than
TurningPoint will open and you will not be able to use the interactive slides. You
should be prompted to close PowerPoint before using TurningPoint.
When TurningPoint opens you will see a start screen like that shown below:
Across the top of the page are 3 tabs called Polling, Content and Manage. On the
Polling tab there are 3 options available:
1. PowerPoint Polling
2. Anywhere Polling
3. Self-Paced Polling
In most cases you will use option 1 and sometimes option 2. To launch PowerPoint
Polling click in the left-hand panel of the same name. When TurningPoint opens it
looks just like a normal PowerPoint interface (remember the TurningPoint
programme is actually a customised version of PowerPoint). The programme
interface is shown below it appears just like PowerPoint but you will see TurningPoint
as one of the tabs in the PowerPoint toolbar as shown below and circled:
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
TurningPoint Menu Tab
In TurningPoint 5 you can:



open an existing PowerPoint
open a previous TurningPoint presentation
create a new presentation.
TurningPoint presentations are saved as .pptx files (the same as a normal
PowerPoint); however, the interactive voting slides will only work if the presentation is
opened from TurningPoint.
6. The TurningPoint menu
Once you have opened TurningPoint, click on TurningPoint Tab from the Toolbar.
This will open the TurningPoint menu as shown below:
The TurningPoint menu is specifically for adding, editing and formatting interactive
TurningPoint slides and presentations. All the usual PowerPoint commands and
options can be accessed from the rest of the PowerPoint toolbar e.g. Insert – to
insert a new PowerPoint Slide. This means you can create a normal PowerPoint
presentation (say for a lecture) and then add one or more interactive voting slides by
going into the TurningPoint Tab.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
7. Help for TurningPoint
At the top-right, there is a blue button which contains a white help
question mark. Click on this for detailed information about
TurningPoint. Always look in the section about PowerPoint polling.
8. Creating TurningPoint slides
With the TurningPoint menu open, click on the New
Button at the top left of the TurningPoint Menu. This will
open a drop-down menu listing a number of options for
the type of interactive voting slide you can choose. Do
not embed video or use animations in TurningPoint
presentations.
PLEASE NOTE DO NOT COPY SLIDES. ALWAYS
CREATE NEW SLIDES. If you copy slides, they will not
always function reliably.
8.1 Creating a multiple choice TurningPoint slide
To create a voting slide for a multiple choice question which will display a vertical
graph first select Multiple Choice from the New Button menu and this will display a
starting point slide as shown below:

Click in the Enter Question Text field and overwrite your voting question.

Click on Enter Answer text to type in the first answer. Click return to enter
text for each consecutive answer. Once you have entered all your answers
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
click outside the answer box and the graph will automatically reflect the
number of answers.

To change the graph display go the Objects button menu as described above
(next to the New Button on the right) and from the dropdown menu choose
Charts.
The slide is now ready to be used in the presentation.
8.2 Different types of TurningPoint slides
There are 10 types of TurningPoint slide but not all of them are available at QMU.
Although multiple choice is most common, other options available include:
8.2.1 Priority ranking
Here you can ask participants to rank items. For example, in revision sessions, you
might want to ask students to prioritise the focus of the sessions. You can pre-select
first how many areas the students can select from and the weighting for each of their
choices – perhaps their first choice will receive 10 points, their second choice 9
points and their 8 points. After voting, you will see a chart combing the scores for all
students and gain an indication of which area the students would most like to revise.
8.2.2 Likert Scale
A Likert slide is used to determine varying levels of agreement or disagreement. The
slide is generically worded but can be customised.
8.2.3 Moment to moment
This slide allows you to monitor audience response throughout a session.
8.2.4 Picture slides
It is possible to create a multiple choice slide with pictures. First create a traditional
multiple choice slide and then upload pictures for each option. Finally, click on
Tools/Convert to Picture.
Picture slides do not work with countdown indicators and do not display
answers in charts.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
8.3 Changing the bullet format next to answer options
It is possible to change the bullet format next to answer
options. Click on the Slide Preferences panel and the
first option: Question Options. The clickers at QMU use
numbers or letters.
9. Displaying results using charts
9.1 Selecting a chart
You can choose how the results
gathered for a slide are displayed.
To do this open the slide and then
go to the Objects button (next to
the New Button on the right) and
from the dropdown menu choose
Charts. This will display a second
dropdown menu that lists the
different style of graphs that are
available for a voting slide. You can
choose between Vertical,
Horizontal, 3-D Pie, Distributed Pie,
Offset, or Doughnut type graphs and a last option called Responses Only that
presents the percentage value for each voting option. The type of graph can be
edited later without having to create a new slide.
9.2 Customising the chart
You can change the colours used in a chart. By default the
colours are set to those of your PowerPoint slide. Click on the
chart and a new panel appears: Slide Preferences. Select
Defined and then you change the colours in the chart.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
9.3 Showing/hiding the chart
9.3.1 Hiding all charts
It is possible to run a presentation without displaying any charts. For example, if you
were running a survey using TurningPoint and you did not want the responses
displayed to influence the answers to further questions, you could set the
presentation to run without displaying the charts. Instead of the results being
displayed TurningPoint moves instead to the next slide or question.
To run the presentation without displaying the charts – for ALL slides in the
presentation, go to Preferences/PowerPoint and deselect Show Results (as below).
The charts will, however, be available to review after the presentation has been
completed.
9.3.2 Hiding selected charts
It is also possible to hide selected charts. Go to the particular slide and

Open the floating Slide Preferences panel (if not already open)
 Under the Polling Options Heading deselect the Show
Results checkbox
The presentation will no longer display the selected chart at
the conclusion of polling. The chart will, however, be available
to review after the presentation has been completed.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
10.
Additional features under the Insert Object menu
10.1 Prompt (Answer Now) indicator
The Answer Now indicator allows you to display a visual cue to your audience that
this is a voting slide. The indicator is visible as soon as the slide is displayed and will
disappear once the voting is closed – for this reason it is possible to position the
indicator directly over the graph as it will not interfere with the graph display.
With the Turning Point menu open, click on Insert Object and select Prompt.
Choose the style of the indicator that you would like from the list and this will be
added to your slide. As with normal PowerPoint objects, the indicator can be moved,
as desired, by clicking and dragging. Objects and graphs can be resized by clicking
and dragging the corner of the object or graph.
10.2 Countdown indicator
The countdown indicator displays a countdown for learners to see and once finished
it will automatically close the voting for that question.
10.2.1 Inserting a countdown indicator
With the Turning Point menu open, click the Insert Object menu and select
Countdown. Choose the style of your indicator from the list and this will be added to
your slide. Again, this can be moved or resized as necessary; the ‘gemstone’ style is
shown in this slide in the bottom right hand corner.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
10.2.2 Changing the times of the countdown indicator
By default Turning Point allocates a 30 second countdown when using the
Countdown indicator this is rather too long for most uses. To change this setting:


With the Turning Point menu open click on the Preferences cog symbol
Click on PowerPoint

Scroll down to the Questions settings and change the number in the
‘Countdown’ box from 30 to whatever figure you prefer, click on the Apply
All’ button next to the Countdown field and then close the Preferences panel.
Please note: the Countdown indicator will not display automatically in a slide. You will
need to click again for the Countdown to display.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
10.3 Correct answer indicator
If you have asked a question, which does have a correct answer, you can insert an
indicator, which will identify that answer visually after the response results have been
displayed – for extra feedback to your students. In order for the indicator to work it is
first necessary to set the correct answer using the Slide Preferences panel:
The Slide Preferences panel appears by default when
you insert a new Turning Point slide or open an existing
presentation. In the section at the bottom is the Scoring
Option Drop Down Menu that allows you to select which of
the slides answers is the correct one. Choose the correct
answer by clicking the drop-down menu and selecting
Correct from the menu options, as shown below – where
option A has been selected as the correct answer:
After you have selected the right answer, you can now add
the Correct Answer Indicator by clicking the Insert Object
menu and choosing Correct Answer Indicator – select
your style of indicator from the menu options.
Remember


11.
even if an answer value has been selected as correct, no answer will be
displayed unless a Correct Answer Indicator is added to the slide
after displaying the results of the slide, you need to click again for the
correct answer indicator to be shown.
Demographic comparison slides
Demographic comparison slides allow you to create a new presentation slide that
collects user data generated in 2 voting slides in the same presentation so they can
be compared with one another. The first slide ‘captures’ the demographic information
and this can later be linked to another slide in the presentation in order to compare
the question results of the second slide with the demographic information of the first.
For example, when researching the amount of physical activity students engage in
each week by students in different years.
First, you need to create a Demographic Assignment slide which is essentially a
special multiple choice question slide that allows the TurningPoint programme to
‘remember’ what the responses of individual users to a question have been (via their
clicker ID). Next, you create a slide which asks information about the number of times
they undertake physical exercise each week. Then you need to link the two slides.
The output is a new chart which displays the linked data.
11.1 Creating a demographic slide
1. In the New button menu, select Demographic Assignment and create a slide.
Here you could ask, for example, which year the students are in.
2. Choose (or create) a question slide (in this case about physical activity).
3. Go to the Tools Menu and select Demographic Comparison
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
4.
A dialog box appears allowing you to choose which Demographic
Assignment in the presentation (there can be more than one) you would like
to link to a slide. This is done by clicking on the Demographic and Question
popup menus.
11.2 A worked example of a demographic comparison
In our test demo TurningPoint presentation, we created a Demographic Assignment
slide that asks students which year of a physics degree they are in (there are 4
years). Also, we created an ordinary question slide that asks the students about a
particular aspect of quantum physics theory (what is the value of the ‘ground state’ in
quantum mechanics?) which has three possible answers: ‘0; ‘lowest value’, and ‘1’.
To link these two slides together to compare their data in a new slide we have
chosen them in the Add Demographic Comparison Slide dialog box as shown
below:
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
The slide this produces maps the student answers to the question against their
academic year. The possible values in the Physics question slide are ‘0’, ‘lowest
value’, and ‘1’.
The demographic comparison slide that we have generated is shown below. We can
see the 3 possible question answers are listed to the left vertically and they are each
mapped against the respondents’ academic year which is shown by the horizontal
bar charts next to each answer (each bar represents an academic year). Please note
this is the display without any votes having been taken.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
11.3 Displaying a demographic assignment slide
In a presentation, the slide with the student response to the physics question displays
first and then the demographic comparison slide.
Please note: demographic slides can be added at any stage of a presentation: the
beginning, middle or end.
12.
Comparison slides
You may want to compare two slides, for example, how students feel about a subject
before and after a session. Create two identical slides with exactly the same multiplechoice options. Select Tools/Comparative Links.
You will then be asked to select the two slides and click Insert to see a comparison
slide. Carefully titling of the two slides is recommended so they can easily be
differentiated.
.
13.
Setting up and testing presentations

Log-in to a QMU computer

Insert the USB dongle into the USB port on the front of the PC

Open TurningPoint

Open your presentation in TurningPoint

Go to a voting slide and run in Slideshow View

Test that the slide runs normally (the polling indicator turns green and says
Polling Open) as shown below:
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5

Test that more than 5 responses are received by clicking 6 different clickers.
(Responses will appear in the responses field)

End the slideshow view

Reset the session (to clear response data) by opening the Turning Point
toolbar (if not already open) and selecting Reset Button in the TurningPoint
menu as show here in the circle:

Navigate to your first slide and you are now ready to begin the presentation.
NOTE: You may wish to keep the projector / Smartboard switched off until
you have finished your test.
14.
Running a presentation with TurningPoint
A TurningPoint slide presentation behaves exactly as a normal PowerPoint with the
slideshow being advanced in the usual way. Whenever a voting slide appears the
TurningPoint presentation bar will appear and the Polling Open field will automatically
turn green meaning that votes can now be accepted. If you have inserted an Answer
Now indicator this will also be automatically displayed. Students are able to vote
immediately and voting can be stopped and the chart displayed by clicking as if to
advance to the next slide. The number of votes received will update the Responses
graph field.
Any other indicators that have been added need to be manually activated by clicking
as if to advance the slide.

The countdown indicator does not start automatically be needs to be started
by clicking as if to advance the slide. Once the countdown is completed the
voting will be stopped and the green Polling Open field will turn to a red
Polling Closed. Again the slide needs to be progressed manually in order to
display the next item in the sequence, which will be the chart displaying the
voting results.

To display a correct answer indicator - again you need to advance the slide.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
14.1 Moving the task bar
This indicates how many votes have been registered. It can be moved using a crosshatch that appears by the side of the task bar. It also allows you to re-poll if there is
an issue with one of your slides.
15. Saving the TurningPoint data collected during a
presentation
If you want to save the data from your TurningPoint session, this can be saved as a
.tpzx file.
To save the data:

Click Save in the TurningPoint toolbar, it is indicated by the floppy disk icon
next to the Reset button. The default location for these files is My Documents
/ TurningPoint5 / Sessions and the filename defaults to the current date and
time.

When you close Turning Point you may be prompted to save changes to the
PowerPoint presentation itself. If you choose to save changes this will save
the graphs / any annotations to the .pptx file. If saved in the presentation, the
graph data can still be reset in Turning Point at a later date / next session by
clicking Reset / Session from the Turning Point toolbar. It is strongly
recommended that you save all your sessions.
16.
TurningPoint reports
Reports from any saved session can be created in TurningPoint. There are many
different types of report that can be run but many of these are not relevant if you
have been using the clickers anonymously. Reports may be useful to review a
previous session, for example, to gather statistics on questions that students found
difficult or for evaluation purposes.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
16.1 Running reports
To run a report you have two options:
16.1.1 Running a report with a current TurningPoint Presentation
If you have a presentation open in TurningPoint, click the Reports button on the
menu bar. This will runs a report for the last iteration of that presentation
16.1.2 Running a report from a saved TurningPoint presentation
To access a previously created Report you have to first close any TurningPoint
presentation you have open. This will return you to the TurningPoint programme
screen.
Click on the Manage tab and this will list all the previously saved reports in the lefthand panel as show below:
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
Select the session you wish to use which will change the right hand panel of the
Manage tab screen to that as shown below, with new information about the Session
and new buttons at the bottom right of the screen labelled Edit Session and Reports
as shown below.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
Click on the Reports button to open the Reports screen. This generates a report
about the session as shown below:
16.2 Exporting reports
Three different types of report can be exported from TurningPoint after a report has
been generated or opened. In the TurningPoint report screen click on the Export
menu button (top left) where there are 3 options:
1. Export as CSV file
2. Export as Excel file
3. Export as HTML (as a mini site)
CSV saves as a csv Excel file – with just the text and numeric data
Excel saves an Excel file with graphics
HTML saves the report as a mini website.
17.
Polling Anywhere
If you need to embed a video or use an animation, you may wish to use Polling
Anywhere. In this case,
When TurningPoint opens you will see a start screen like that shown below and
select Polling/Anywhere Polling.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
When clicking on Anywhere Polling a menu appears as below and from here you
can develop slides before the session or during.
You can then click on the dropdown menu
next to the green button and create a
multiple choice question.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
18.
Team competitions
TurningPoint supports Team competitions.
18.1 Creating teams
First click on Compete/Team
Assignment and create your
teams. Participants must vote for
their team so their votes are then
registered with the correct team.
Then create voting slides with
correct and incorrect answers. As
you run the presentation,
participants votes will registered
for their team.
18.2 Creating slides displaying team results (Team Leader Board)
Click on Compete/Team Assignment and this will display
the points per team. A further option might be a Wager
slide when teams decide to wager their collected points.
19.
FAQ’s
Do I need to add a new slide to show the results?
No – the graph is displayed on the same slide as the question.
Why doesn’t the clicker work?
If you suspect a particular clicker is not working you can test it using TurningPoint’s
polling test:

In TurningPoint, you will see a small radio mast symbol with the word
Receiver next to it. Click on Receiver.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5

In the next screen, the Connections option at the left should be selected.

In the Response Devices panel at the top of this page is a section called
Polling Connections with a button labelled Test next to it. Click on Test and
a new window opens called Polling Test which should display an entry for
every clicker that is pressed. If no entry appear after pressing a clicker it can
be deemed faulty and should be kept separately and then advise the LRC
when you return them.
Will my presentations in TurningPoint 2008 work in TurningPoint
5?
Yes. If you have a presentation in TurningPoint 2008, you can open it in TurningPoint
5. You will receive a message explaining that the presentation is being converted to
TurningPoint 5 and will no longer be accessible through TurningPoint 2008.
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QMU guide to TurningPoint 5
If you need to embed a video or use an animation, you may wish to use Polling
Anywhere. In this case,
Why don’t clickers work when they are used in adjacent classrooms?
If clickers are used in rooms that are close to each other, they will interfere with the
results displayed in your charts. Always check when booking that no one has
booked clickers in a classroom near to you at the same time.
Do clickers work with an embedded video or animation?
No. Clickers will not work with either of these. In such circumstances use Anywhere
Polling.
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