Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere is a web-based tool that allows you to capture instant feedback in a variety of forms. It can be used in remote classes, virtual meetings, events, and more. Smith has a campus-wide license.

Tips for Success With In-Class Polling

Before using Poll Everywhere

1. Know your goals: What’s your goal for using polling? Want to know how well students are getting concepts? Create quizzes with immediate feedback? Keep your goals in mind as you write questions.

2. Have a grading plan: Polling is best for low-stakes activities but if you plan to grade student responses, plan your grading system in advance. If scores are graded, make them regularly accessible to reduce student anxiety. Consider giving partial credit for any answer and full credit for correct answers.

3. Get set: Test how to present your poll before class, especially if you’ll be using a different computer than the one you used to create the poll.

4. Keep your connection strong: Having many students participate in polls at once can slow down the wireless network. When possible, hardwire your laptop or computer.

5. Take it beyond attendance: Graded participation polls can be useful for encouraging attendance, but can be frustrating for students if attendance is the sole reason polls are used. Plan to use polling in other ways, too.

6. Model a growth mindset: Keep a positive attitude and be willing to make a few mistakes as you learn. Consider this a chance to model the learning behavior you desire from your students.

When using Poll Everywhere

1. Make introductions: Explain to students why you’re using polling and what you expect them to gain from it. Introduce the tool with some low-stakes questions, e.g., If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

2. Use our first question wisely: Use the first poll question in every class to ask something low-stakes, like an icebreaker or student feedback on the course or content. This gives them time to get devices out and ready.

3. Hide the histogram: You don’t always have to show the histogram immediately. Hiding immediate results from students can help them be more honest in their responses.

4. Build in some time: Allow more response time than is strictly necessary. As students become accustomed to submitting their votes, you can pick up the pace. Typically, 30 to 40 seconds is about the right amount of time to answer a simple question that doesn’t require calculations.

5. Incentivize participation: Students are less likely to zone out when their participation is rewarded. You could offer prizes for participation, make it part of a game or competition, or they could earn extra credit.

6.  Practice flexibility: Be prepared to adapt your lesson plan if polls indicate students aren’t understanding an important concept. Throw out or regrade questions that contain an error or are unclear.

7. Mix it up: Space out questions in the presentation, rather than offering several rapid-fire questions followed by a period of inactivity. Consider breaking up tricky questions by including a silly poll.

8. Prompt peer learning: Encourage students to discuss answers with each other before responding. This will help eliminate “cheating” on answers and allow them to learn from each other.