Faculty and Staff- Registering for and Using Top Hat Basic

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Overview

Top Hat is one of the main audience response systems in use on campus. This software allows faculty and staff members to facilitate live and asynchronous interactions with students through features like polling, discussion prompts, quiz questions and more. Information on full functionality can be accessed here.

There are two types of Top Hat access in use on campus- Pro (paid version) and Basic (free version). Associated licensing costs are paid per student and participating student cohorts are established by each college prior to the start of the academic year. For reference, a list of cohorts participating in Pro licensing can be viewed here. If you are presenting to cohorts other than those listed for Pro licenses, feel free to move forward with Basic registration. If you are presenting to a cohort with Pro licensing, feel free to instead utilize these directions for Pro registration.

As a Basic user, note that you will not have the following functionality:

  • Ability to keep attendance data after live sessions have concluded
  • Access to a gradebook on either professor or student side
  • Ability for students to reference materials after live sessions have concluded
  • Ability for professor to deploy asynchronous assignments
  • Ability to keep or access other forms of data after live sessions have concluded

Directions for registration and use are linked below.

  • When prompted to select a license type, you will select "Top Hat Basic"
  • When prompted to select a school name, select "Western University of Health Sciences (Basic)"
  • Login for Baisc access is not tied in with WesternU authentication. If you are using your WesternU email in another paid area of Top Hat, feel free to use an alternate email for use with this service.

Professor: Creating your account and courses

Professor: Quick Start Guide

Educator Knowledge Base

FAQs

What if I would like to make a single presentation to a group of non-WesernU participants or I present sparsely to a group that I would not like to make register for access?

  • Top Hat accommodates one-off requests if you would not like to make it mandatory for participants to register to participate in your presentation. This access can be accomplished per presentation by contacting Top Hat support and letting them know you are presenting to a guest audience.

I am having technical or account-related issues with Top Hat- where do I contact for help?

  • Because WesternU does not have administrative access to account information, please contact Top Hat support for issues. If further escalation is needed, WesternU staff can facilitate that process if a report is submitted here.

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