Updating Your PointSolutions Software
- Matthew Warne
Updating Your TurningPoint or PointSolutions Software
This guide is to provide instructors information about updating their PointSolutions (formerly TurningPoint by Turning Technologies) Software for creating polls, running polls, managing rosters, and uploading grades to Blackboard. Instructors can always download the latest version by going to their PointSolutions instructor page and using the download icon next to their profile icon in the upper-right hand portion of the screen.
All users are encouraged to keep their software up-to-date by the methods below, but users with software still branded TurningPoint should upgrade immediately.
What version do I have now?
On both TurningPoint and PointSolutions, the version number of the software is located on the launch screen and inside the application after login.
Updating to the latest version
The following update process is the same for Mac and PC users on Turning Point 8.
Browse to your current version of the TurningPoint or PointSolutions software, launch it and sign-on.
Double-click the TurningPoint or PointSolutions logo in the bottom-center of the application.
A new window will open. Click Check for Updates.
You will be informed if an update is available. If a new version of is available, click on Install Update.
The update will download. When it is ready to install, click Install and Relaunch.
Upgrading Manually on Windows
Use these instructions if you're ready to update the software on your USB drive/receiver manually. You can also use these instructions to put a version of the software directly on your laptop or desktop computer. If your machine is provided by your school or college, you're encouraged to discuss it with your local IT support team who may need to use an administrator login to install the software.
To install the new version:
Open a web browser and go to https://instructor.turningtechnologies.com/#/downloads. It may require you to sign-on if you have not already.
Locate PointSolutions desktop (PC — No Install) and click the link to download
Find the file that you downloaded to your computer which is will include "pointsolutions" and the version number in the file name — it should have a PointSolutions logo.
Double-click the file you downloaded. This will launch a dialog that asks you where you'd like to place the application. Click the icon to the right of the address and browse to the top of the drive (not a folder inside it). Then click "Unzip."
When the installer is complete, browse to the USB drive and go into the "PointSolutions" folder. Double-click the application to launch it.
Upgrading Manually on macOS
The updated PointSolutions.app cannot launch from the USB drive if it is moved directly there from the downloaded .dmg disk image file—it will produce an error about the software being corrupted.
To successfully upgrade the macOS version on a USB receiver, a user must first move PointSoultions.app to a location on their local machine and launch it. This allows the software to complete a configuration step. Once the software has launched successfully from a local disk, that version of the app can be moved to the desired USB location to launch successfully.
You can always download a version to run from your Apple MacBook by logging into the instructor portal and downloading the version "PointSolutions desktop (Mac)." This will provide a .dmg file with a version of the application inside. You can move it to your Applications directory if you have permissions or place it on your desktop and run it from there. If your machine is provided by your school or college, you're encouraged to discuss it with your local IT support team who may need to use an administrator login to install the software.