Recently a number of CU Boulder faculty members have been the target of sales pitches from audience response system (ARS) provider Top Hat Monocle. Their tactics have included offers of an iPad to any instructor who would switch from iClicker (CU Boulder’s current CUClicker service) to Top Hat Monocle. Furthermore, the sales person indicated that they were "following up" and had been invited to speak at CU Boulder.
OIT has never invited Top Hat Monocle to make a pitch to faculty on our campus. They are known for being quite aggressive in their marketing efforts and for acting without the endorsement of central IT organizations or other administrative units.
There are a few things to consider if you are contacted by representatives from Top Hat Monocle:
- A faculty review committee chose i>clicker as the standard for CU's ARS.
- Receiving an iPad for choosing an ARS for your class is in direct violation of the State procurement procedures.
- Under the current CUClicker service, students buy one clicker, and don't pay any additional semester subscription fees, making it work for four (or five, or six) years.
- CUClickers works using RF technology and doesn't rely on WiFi. While WiFi connections can seem quite robust, we have found that in large lecture halls with every student accessing the network at once, there can be latency issues.
- CUClickers also doesn't rely on third party applications running on individuals’ devices. iClicker doesn’t require a functioning and robust laptop or smartphone.
- Not all students have smartphones or laptops (even though it might seem like it!).
Professors can theoretically use whatever software they want to teach their class; however, those decisions may have unintended consequences that make it more difficult for students to be successful. If you have questions about the CUClicker service or audience response systems in general, please contact the IT Service Center at help@colorado.edu or call 303-735-4357 (5-HELP from a campus phone).
