Columbia University Medical Center Information Technology (CUMC-IT) and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL) are pleased to announce a new audience response system for classroom use: TurningPoint 5 and ResponseWare.

Audience response systems (ARS) allow live polling of large groups of students. TurningPoint is free audience response software for creating polling slides, particularly within PowerPoint presentations.

Faculty at CUMC have used ARS for several years to increase student engagement and assess student learning. Previously, however, students had to have a specialized voting device - often referred to as a “clicker” - to respond to a poll in class. The new ResponseWare app allows users to respond to TurningPoint polls on a mobile device or laptop.

Other new features include:

• Ability to submit short answer or essays as an answer to a question
• A simple interface for polling in PowerPoint, AnyWhere polling and self-paced polling
• Integration with PowerPoint for Mac 2011
• An easy-to-use Dashboard to manage polling, participants, content, sessions, and reports

To get started with TurningPoint, CUMC faculty and instructors can attend a CCNMTL workshop, read support articles at CCNMTL’s Knowledgebase, or request help by emailing cumc-ars@columbia.edu.