Overview of Top Hat
Top Hat is an engagement platform that empowers educators to incorporate active learning into every area of their course.
Instructors use Top Hat during class to take attendance, conduct live polls and discussions, and give students real-time feedback on how well they understand course concepts. Outside of class, Top Hat enables instructors to adopt and personalize interactive content, assignments, and assessments.
Checklist before the semester starts
If you made the decision to use Top Hat in your class, here is a checklist that you should complete before the semester starts.
- Step 1: Sign up for/Create a Top Hat Instructor Account using UMass SSO (you only need to do it once while at UMass)
- Step 2: Create a Top Hat course (you will need to do it for each course)
- Step 3: Enable and Connect Top Hat to your Canvas course (you will need to do it for each course)
Access Top Hat
Instructors can access Top Hat using the Top Hat website or the desktop application. Top Hat is currently available to instructors in the College of Natural Sciences and Isenberg School of Management.
Sign up for/Create a Top Hat Instructor Account
Top Hat Instructor accounts are free.
Instructors will be prompted to login via SSO when accessing Top Hat and can log in with their UMass credentials. To create an account:
- Navigate to the Top Hat website.
- On the SIGN-UP screen, select I’m an Educator.
- Select Sign-up. The Create your account page will open.
- On the Create Account page, in the Email Address field, enter your umass.edu email address.
- Select the Next Stop button. This action will trigger the SSO (Single Sign-On) and take you to the University of Massachusetts Log-in page.
- Sign in with your netID@umass.edu and the password.
Once you complete the steps above to create your Top Hat instructor account, Top Hat will automatically create a blank course called ‘My first course’ for you. You can then explore the platform by trying things out in the course.
For more information, see Getting Started with Top Hat for Educators.
Create a Top Hat course
Instructors will need to create a Top Hat course for each course and semester they plan to use it.
To create a Top Hat course:
- Select the Courses link on the top.
- Select the Create Course button and go ahead input the course details.
- Optional - If your course has multiple sections, you can enable the option Sections - This course has multiple sections. We recommend leaving this option unchecked in most cases. If you are unsure, please contact instruct@umass.edu.
Connect a Top Hat course to your Canvas course
Step 1: Enable the Top Hat link in your Canvas course
- Open your Canvas course page
- In the left-side course navigation menu:
- If a Top Hat link is present, jump to Step 2: Establish the Top Hat integration with Canvas
- If you do not see a Top Hat link in the navigation menu, follow the steps below to enable the Top Hat link.
- In the left-hand navigation menu, select Settings. The Settings page will open.
- On the Settings page, select the Navigation tab. The Navigation page will open.
- On the Navigation tab, locate Top Hat on the list of tools.
- Select the three dots on the Top Hat row. Select Enable on the drop-down menu.
- At the bottom of the page, select Save. The Top Hat link will appear on your course navigation menu.
Step 2: Establish the Top Hat integration with Canvas
- In the left-hand course navigation menu, select Top Hat. Based on your browser settings, if prompted, select Open in a new window. The Connect Your Courses page will open.
- From the Search Top Hat courses… list, select the Top Hat course that you would like to connect to.
- Select Continue. A ‘Your course is paired’ message will appear.
- Select the View Course in Top Hat link. The Top Hat Courses page will open.
Configure the settings of your Top Hat course
You can set how responses and scoring will be aggregated and send grades to your Canvas course.
To configure your Top Hat course:
- Navigate to your Top Hat course.
- [Where] Select the Course Settings icon next to the Join Code in the top header. The Account & Course Settings window will open.
People & Roles
Unfortunately Top Hat does not automatically enroll co-instructors or Teaching Assistants(TAs) at this time. This is a feature they are looking to add soon, but in the meantime you can manually add them to the Top Hat course.
To add your TA(s) manually in the Top Hat course:
- Open the TopHat course through either the Top Hat link in your Canvas course or the Top Hat website.
- Select the “Add Instructor or TA” icon at the top of the course page. This is a small icon that looks like a + sign next to a person’s outline.
- Select the Add Educator button. A popup window will open.
- Enter the email addresses for your TAs, and select a Role. Make sure to use the email address used on the People page of your Canvas course (typically their netid@umass.edu email).
- When selecting the role, typically instructors will use the Grading Teaching assistant role for TAs.
- Select the Add Educator(s) button to save the changes.
Your TA(s) will receive an email inviting them to the course with the role you selected for them. Once this invitation has been accepted, they will keep that access level for the remainder of the course.
Grading
Configure how students view their performance and set default point values for new questions.
Gradebook Availability
- Enable gradebook for students.
- Hide Top Hat Test details from students in the Gradebook (e.g. questions and answers).
Grade Display Options
- Only display grades of items for which the due date has passed or are not currently being presented.
- Display grades for all items (including those with a future due date and those being presented).
Default Question/Discussion Options
Set default correctness and participation points for new items (will not update existing questions).
LTI 1.3 LMS Sync
You can validate the pairing of the Top Hat course and the Canvas course here. Please note that, to set up the integration, you must do it in Canvas via the Top Hat link.
Sync class roster from Canvas to Top Hat
Only enrolled students will be included in the class roster from Canvas. Please note that you will need to manually add any Teaching Assistants (TAs) or co-instructors to your Top Hat course.
The class roster is automatically synced everyday at 12:00AM (every 24 hours). You can also manually update the roster at any time by clicking Sync Roster in the "Students" tab. If a student is removed (e.g. dropped) in a Canvas course, during the roster sync the student will be removed from the Top Hat course, and their participation & grade history will be removed.
Student data is not deleted during this process.
- If a student is re-enrolled, their prior participation records will appear in the Top Hat gradebook.
- If a student is not re-enrolling in the course but you need access to their participation records, contact the Top Hat Support Team who will be able to provide that data to you.
Sync grades from Top Hat to Canvas
Once you have integrated Top Hat with your Canvas course and students have begun submitting responses, you can sync your Canvas grades at any time from the Top Hat Gradebook.
How to understand the Top Hat Gradebook
The 'Totals' column in the Top Hat Gradebook represents the cumulative score from all Top Hat items, regardless of whether they are classified as tests, assignments, in-class activities, or quizzes. And 'Attendance' is tracked separately as its own category in the gradebook.
How to sync Top Hat grades to Canvas
Grade sync between Top Hat and Canvas is initiated manually by the instructor.
To sync grades from Top Hat to Canvas:
- In your Top Hat Gradebook, click the Sync with LMS button in the top right corner. The Select Items to Sync with LMS pop-up will appear.
- Select the grade item(s) that you want to import into Canvas.
- Click Sync with LMS to begin the syncing process. A message will appear at the bottom of the page indicating that the grades are syncing. Once the process is complete, the message will close automatically.
Please note that when syncing an item for the first time, Top Hat will automatically create the assignment in Canvas. You do not need to pre-create assignments in Canvas for Top Hat content. When syncing the same item again, Top Hat will recognize that the assignment already exists in Canvas and will update the grades in the existing assignment.
Where Top Hat assignments appear in Canvas
By default, once synced, the (Top Hat) assignments are placed in the top assignment group in your Canvas Gradebook. The assignments function like any other Canvas assignments. You can move the assignment(s) to a different assignment group if desired.
Take attendance in Top Hat
Taking Attendance with Top Hat
More about Top Hat
Need help now?
The IDEAS team offer drop-in support Monday through Friday, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM:
- Zoom Sessions: Join us online anytime during support hours. Meeting ID: 924-709-736
- In-Person Sessions: Visit us in Room 730 on the 7th floor of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.
For questions or to schedule a dedicated appointment, please email us at instruct@umass.edu.