Getting Started with Top Hat at OU
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Top Hat is a student response system and comprehensive teaching platform that instructors can use to engage students both within and outside of the classroom with interactive slides, graded questions, customized content, videos, discussions, and polls. Students can use smart phones, tablets, and laptops to participate in Top Hat activities.
At the University of Oklahoma, an enterprise license agreement allows all students to use Top Hat without fee.
Before deciding on whether to use Top Hat, you may wish to review the Student Response System KB article for pedagogical considerations related to using Top Hat in your course.
Top Hat fully integrates with Canvas, and the newest Top Hat integration (LTI 1.3) includes new features and procedures. Users familiar with Top Hat should review the resources below, and note any items marked "NEW".
Note: Students should not enroll manually in a Top Hat course (via the Join Code or direct URL), because they risk being removed from the course during the nightly automatic sync. To enroll in a Top Hat course, students should go to the Canvas course in a browser, select the navigation menu, and then choose Top Hat LTI 1.3. Students listed as Pending/No Access in the Students tab of your Top Hat course need to select the Top Hat link in your Canvas course. "Pending" means students will need to create a Top Hat account, which they can do once they select the Top Hat link in Canvas.
Top Hat offers a free concierge service to help instructors create Top Hat questions from a Word or other text document. For more information, see Professor: Top Hat Concierge Service. For more on how to engage students with Top Hat, see the following resources.
Note: You should not enroll manually in a Top Hat course (via the Join Code or direct URL), because you risk being removed from the course during the automatic sync. Instead, follow the directions below. You must complete the registration process through a browser; you cannot enroll on a mobile device.
To enroll in a Top Hat course as a student, go to your Canvas course in a browser, and in the navigation menu, select Top Hat LTI 1.3. You will need to select Top Hat LTI 1.3 from the course navigation menu for each Canvas course that uses Top Hat. If you don’t already have a student Top Hat account, you will create one and then sign in. OU uses Single Sign On, so you will be prompted for your campus credentials during the account creation process. For more information, please visit Student: Creating a Top Hat Account and Single Sign On Account Setup.
To participate in Top Hat activities, you need a web-enabled smartphone, tablet, or laptop computer. You can also submit most types of answers via text message using an ordinary cell phone; however, some question types cannot be answered via text messaging. For details, see Student: SMS/Text Message Submissions.
Use one of the following apps. Make sure you have an up-to-date version of the mobile app, your chosen browser, and/or your device's operating system.
- Top Hat mobile app (smartphone or tablet):
- Top Hat web app:
- Mobile web app: Use Android native browser, Android Firefox, Android Chrome, or iOS native Safari browser
- Laptop: Use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge (Top Hat recommends Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox for the best user experience)
If you need to register your mobile phone number with Top Hat after setting up your account (for example, if you didn't enter it initially, or if you get a new phone number), see Managing Account Information.
Teaching Assistants (TAs) can be added to courses with Teaching Assistant role privileges This role is for users who have used, or are using, Top Hat as a student and need teaching assistant privileges for specific courses on their existing student account. After the course instructor adds you to the course, you will receive an email invitation to join. In the email, select Go to Top Hat. For more, see Accepting an invitation to join a course as a Teaching Assistant.