INTERACT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
Poll Everywhere
Author: James Toner
Edited by: Michael Detyna
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ctel
http://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/ctel
http://twitter.com/ctelkcl
http://www.youtube.com/ctelkcl
[email protected]
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License | [This document is under review]
Centre for Technology
Enhanced Learning
Poll Everywhere
CONTENTS
Recognise the benefits
Why use Poll Everywhere
How we have used it
How much does it cost?
Understanding the basics
Question Types
Create and edit questions
How To Personalise Your URL
How People Can Respond
Open Ended Questions
Setting the timer
Copying Questions in from word
Overview and Grouping
Integrate the software into PowerPoints
Apps
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RECOGNISE THE BENEFITS
Poll Everywhere software is a simple Audience Response System application that enables you to
engage with your class via real time online feedback. Students respond by accessing a web site on
their own personal internet connected device (laptop, tablet or smartphone), by sending SMS (text)
messages or using Twitter.
Poll Everywhere is an application that is simple to set up and use. You create polls and quizzes in
advance of your session, and students answer multiple choice or open questions during the session.
The poll or quiz is updated, in real time, with their answers and you can decide on whether to display
them. Advanced uses include marking answers as correct, registering students to track achievement
and using questions with clickable images. You are also able to embed these polls within Microsoft
PowerPoint which makes a seamless experience for both academic and student. In addition you are
able to analyse responses through its reporting features.
WHY USE POLL EVERYWHERE
The simplicity of the tool allows you to focus on its teaching and learning potential: promoting active,
collaborative and deep learning; increasing participation and interactivity; promoting discussion;
increasing retention of core lecture information; increasing engagement; giving feedback; helping
students prepare for exams or run team competitions. Have a look at a few examples below.
HOW WE HAVE USED IT
In a King’s Learning Institute (KLI) large group session (80 students in the Stamford lecture theatre)
we used Poll Everywhere to quiz the student cohort (academics) on their knowledge of Education
Policy. We used a mixture of MCQ questions and open text option to demonstrate a variety of
delivery. The point of this was twofold. Firstly, to aid the academic by collecting student responses,
therefore gauging levels of understanding in the lecture and thus helping to support the direction of
the session. Secondly, to showcase and demonstrate the use of a technology tool that could be used
across the institute, as a way of instantly informing academics on student engagement and
understanding in a large lecture format. Feedback has been extremely positive from both students
and staff. Some of the specific Poll Everywhere feedback from the session is below:
“Managed to make what could have been a very dry subject into something interactive and
interesting, there were interesting facts and a good explanation of how the quiz resource worked. The
quiz worked!”
“The afternoon session was very interesting, inspiring to see how quizzes can be integrated into a
lecture.”
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“I liked that it was interactive, using quizzes and stimulating discussion but at the same time giving
some interesting insights into UK educational policy.”
“Interactive quizzing is possible in lecture theatres at KCL!”
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
It is free for all King's staff. There is a basic plan available for anyone to use which you can access in
activity 2, and if you want to be added to the main King’s account simply email [email protected]
ACTIVITY 1 – ITS USES
In pairs or more discuss what attracted you to this session and the type of scenarios you think yiu will
find it as a helpful tool and why. If you have time, also discuss situation where it will not be beneficial.
UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS
ACTIVITY 2 – CREATING YOUR ACCOUNT
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Go to http://www.polleverywhere.com/
Select the sign up button .
Fill in the ‘First Name’, ‘Last Name’, ‘Email’ and ‘Password’ fields.
Select ‘Teaching college and graduate classes’
Select ‘United Kingdom’ as the country people will be texting from
Select the ‘Agreement’ tick box
Finally select the ’Sign up for my Poll Everywhere account’ button
8. The following screen will appear
9 If you decide you want to have premium features (which stops the limit of 40 student responses per
poll), then email [email protected] and they can set you up with a premium account.
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HOW TO PERSONALISE YOUR URL
You can personalise the web address by selecting the ‘Settings’ option at the top
This will display the following screen
In the inbox displayed below change your url name to something more personal to you. Tip is to keep
it short.
If you are typing in something that has already been taken it will appear as below
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Once you have something that is not taken the below statement will appear
Then select the change button to associate this url with your account. The following screen will
appear.
ACTIVITY 3 – CHANGE YOUR POLL URL
On your account personalise your url to something relevant to you.
Tip its best to keep this as short as possible.
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QUESTION TYPES
There are 5 question types. These are:
●
●
●
●
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Multiple Choice
Open Ended
Q&A
Ranked poll
Clickable Image
A multiple choice poll lets you define a set of fixed choices that participants can choose from. Results
can be displayed in a graph. An example of a multiple choice poll might be, "How many people are on
Facebook?" with options like "500+ million", "100+ million", and "Less than 100 million".
An open ended question allows participants to send free-form text responses or short answers instead
of pre-defined choices. An open ended question might ask, "What questions do you have for the
presenter?" and participants can send in any short answer they want. Their answers might be just one
word, a short phrase, or an entire sentence.
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Q&A: Your audience submits free text responses which can be upvoted or downvoted by their fellow
audience members.
Clickable image polls: Your audience clicks on a part of an image to vote. (Currently this poll only allows web
voting, not SMS texting.)
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CREATE AND EDIT QUESTIONS
ACTIVITY 3– CREATING YOUR OWN QUESTIONS
Create two new questions in your account. One should be an ‘Open Ended’ question and the other
should be a ‘Multiple Choice’ question.
To start select the
button
Type your question text in the inbox as shown below
Once you start typing the question type options appear underneath the question text. Select the ‘Add
an answer
button’ to provide more possible answers.
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Once you are satisfied with your first question simply write you next question in the ‘Add another poll:’
input box. This time select the ‘Open ended’’ option and fill in the answers.
You can also add images by click the camera icon.
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Once complete, select the ‘Create’ button
The following screen will appear
Select one of your questions
Below shows an example of a ‘Multiple Choice’ question.
At the top of the page it displays the various methods people are able to respond to the question.
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HOW PEOPLE CAN RESPOND
On the right side column of the question page are the response options.
The following options appear
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Changing these options will amend the text at the top of the main question screen. It is also possible
to add a tweet option.
Please remember that the web address for your poll will be different from the example in this workbook.
Look at the section on the right hand side of the screen that says “Audience can respond at ….”
and make a note of the web address.
ACTIVITY 5 – STUDENT VIEW
On your computer or mobile device go to the url of your poll
The following screen will appear.
To push it to the web url, I need to press the ‘Push’ icon
so it becomes green
As a student you will see a screen similar to the below when a poll is active. To interact select the
relevant answer.
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Back on the Instructor screen I can see the amount of people currently participating in the session
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On the instructor screen I can see that one participant has chosen blue.
There is an option to allow you to hide the participant answers. This is done by selecting the ‘Hide
Results’ button
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When selected the screen will look like the below. Just beneath the poll you can see how many
people have responded
If you feel the screen is too cluttered you can go to full screen mode by selecting the ‘Toggle Full
Screen’
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The full screen mode will look something like the below.
To see the option available, hover the mouse at the far right edge of the screen. These are the same
option as on the previous screen but hidden until you hover over them.
Press the ‘Esc’ key to exit the full screen mode or the relevant button in the side menu.
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ACTIVITY 6 – ROLE PLAY - MULTIPLE CHOICE TESTING
In pairs, one of you acts as the presenter while the other acts as the participant. Use your multiple
choice question for the moment and see if you can manage to receive/submit an answer. Switch roles
once successful.
.
As a participant, on the web URL, the screen would look something like the below.
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Once the participant submits their answer they will be displayed instantly on the instructor’s screen.
An example is below.
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In the setting you can change the visual effect of this by selecting the paint brush icon and clicking
your preferred choice.
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Additionally you can select the edit button
Also in the response settings area you can restrict the number of replies, etc.
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ACTIVITY 7 - ROLE PLAY – OPEN ENDED QUESTION TESTING
In pairs, one of you acts as the presenter while the other acts as the participant. Use your open ended
question and see if you can manage to receive/submit an answer. Switch roles once successful.
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SETTING THE TIMER
You are able to enter a time limit for when you allow responses. If you hover over the bottom of the
screen the option appears
Enter in the number of second and when ready select the stopwatch symbol to start the count down.
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OFFICE INTEGRATION
There are two pieces of software within Microsoft Office that you can use with Poll
Everywhere, Word and PowerPoint. The most important piece of software to understand is
PowerPoint because this will allow you to create and operate smooth presentations in a lecture.
INTEGRATE THE SOFTWARE INTO POWERPOINTS
If you use Microsoft PowerPoint then you have the ability to add Poll Everywhere questions into
slides. To do this you must first download the plugin software. This is available at
http://www.polleverywhere.com/app
Please also note that you need this app running from the PC you are going to use to deliver your
presentation from.
Once installed there will be a new tab along the top of PowerPoint, as shown below
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Select the ‘Log In’ button
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Enter your Poll Everywhere username and password
Then select the ‘Poll Slide’ option
The questions from your account will be displayed.
Select the question and then click the ‘Insert Selected Polls’ button.
Tip - holding the ‘Ctrl’ key while selecting the question will allow you to pick multiple questions in one
go.
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A similar screen to below will appear
To check that it is working, select the slide mode option
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ACTIVITY 8
Create a PowerPoint and add questions from your Polleverywhere account. Once finished answer
your presentation in pairs. Again one person being the instructor while the other the participant and
then switching.
COPYING QUESTIONS IN FROM WORD
You can save time by creating questions in a word processing software package and then simply
pasting them into the Poll Everywhere interface. The following rules apply:
1. 1 question per line
2. Question ends with a “?”
3. For a Multiple Choice Poll enter options after the “?” separated by a comma.
For example
Open question = What is your favourite pet?
Multiple Choice question = What pet do you prefer? Cat, Dog, Rabbit, Snake
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ACTIVITY 9
Create two new questions in Microsoft Word using the above format. Once completed paste into the
create poll inbox.
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OVERVIEW AND GROUPING
On the overview screen you can move around the question order by dragging the question up and
down the page when hovering over the left side of the question row.
Once you have a number of questions, it may be advantageous to organise them into groups. To do
this select the tick box next to the question and select the ‘group’ button at the top.
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The questions selected will appear in a new group. Hover over the tile and select the edit button to
give the group a name.
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Type in the name and select the save button.
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ACTIVITY
Put your original two questions into group labelled ‘my first questions’
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MODERATION IN POLL EVERYWHERE
It is important to create an inclusive teaching environment where all students feel welcome. The Poll
Everywhere software allows great functionality in terms of allowing two way interaction with students,
and this allows students to give responses that can appear on screen.
There are a number of poll types available including multiple choice; and clickable image polls which
allow students to select a number of preselected options without giving their own written responses.
There are also polls –“Q and A” and “Open ended” which allow students to give their own written
responses on screen.
Lecturers are responsible for what appears on the screens in lectures, and ensuring this content is
appropriate.
As a lecturer you will know the levels of maturity of your students, and will be best able to gauge what
appropriate tools to use, and whether or not moderation is required or is appropriate. This document
sets out some of the tools available.
PROFANITY FILTER
There is an automatic filter to block profanity. By default it should be enabled. You can double check
that this is enabled by logging in to the software, looking at a poll and selecting “Moderation”. By
default it should say “Block responses with profanity”. This will ensure that responses containing
swearing do not appear on screen.
BE AWARE OF MODERATION TOOLS
Separate to the profanity filter there are also tools to moderate open ended responses in Poll
Everywhere. You can use these to ensure that written responses that appear on screen are
appropriate.
If you are concerned your students may write something inappropriate, you can:
-
use open ended questions with moderation on;
or you may want to ask multiple choices questions where there is no possibility of students giving
written responses that appear on screen.
YOU ARE IN CONTROL
If you regard moderation and/or stopping swearing appearing on screen as censorship then you can
enable the “Anything goes” option, but you would need to take responsibility for anything that appears
on your screen in a lecture. By default no moderation is enabled.
If you want to moderate written responses, the process is as follows:
HOW TO MODERATE IN POLL EVERYWHERE PART 1: BEFORE THE LECTURE
When creating a poll you need to enable moderation.
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To do this, when creating a poll:
- click on Moderation
- and then enable moderation.
Be aware when this is done no responses will appear unless you accept them from within the
smartphone app.
HOW TO MODERATE IN POLL EVERYWHERE PART 2: FAMILIARISATION WITH THE SMARTPHONE APP
You also need to download the Poll Everywhere smartphone app. This can be downloaded from
polleverywhere.com/mobile onto your smartphone. It is worth playing around with this app before you
come to a lecture and making sure you are comfortable with it.
-
You can log in with your normal username and password, then
Find the poll you want to use, then open it.
During the lecture when answers come in you can select “show” or “hide”
Please make sure you are comfortable with the process before you get to a lecture. If you need any
help with this let us know well before hand, and you can come along to one of our termly CPD
sessions.
HOW TO MODERATE IN POLL EVERYWHERE PART 3: DURING THE LECTURE
Just before the lecture, you need to log into Poll Everywhere on your computer as usual
-
You would also need to log in to the Poll everywhere smartphone app. You can log in with your
normal username and password.
Find the poll you want to use, then open it.
During the lecture when answers come in you can select “show” or “hide”.
You may want a second person to help moderate responses using the smartphone.
BE AWARE OF POLLS THAT DON’T ALLOW FOR WRITTEN RESPONSES.
There are three poll types that don’t allow for written responses form students. These are:
-
Multiple choice, when students select from a series of options you have given them.
Rank order when students rank a series of options you have given them.
Clickable image polls when students each select a part of an image you have given them.
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Extra activity
Moderation with a smartphone Activity
a) Setting up the app and moderation
1 With your smartphone download the relevant smartphone
app. This can be downloaded from
polleverywhere.com/mobile or from the Apple iTunes store or
from the Google play store if using an Android phone
2. On your computer go to polleverywhere.com and create an open ended poll, or open up an
existing open ended poll.
3. Change the moderation settings by clicking on “Moderation”, and then selecting “Enable
moderation”. At this point no polls will appear until you
4. Then click on the make live button
. Remember the name of your poll.
b) Moderation in use.
5. Go back to your smartphone, and after the app has downloaded select “I’m presenting”, and
enter your username and password.
6. In your smartphone look for the poll and click on the name of your poll.
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7. With a partner or on your on your own, in a different device (such as a computer) open the web
address of your poll and answer your questions.
8. On your smartphone select “show responses”, and then “Show” appropriate responses or “Hide”
inappropriate ones.
If you are concerned about the levels of maturity of your students, then you can use the moderation
tolls with a smartphone to moderate responses, as detailed above.
If you are concerned about the levels of maturity of your students, and you are also concerned about
the ease of using a smartphone to moderate responses, then it may be easiest not to use “Q and A”
and “Open ended” polls in lectures; and instead use polls that don’t allow for written responses.
Remember there are polls that don’t allow for open student responses:
BE AWARE OF POLLS THAT DON’T ALLOW FOR WRITTEN RESPONSES.
There are three poll types that don’t allow for written responses form students. These are:
-
Multiple choice, when students select from a series of options you have given them.
Rank order when students rank a series of options you have given them.
Clickable image polls when students each select a part of an image you have given them.
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Here are some additional journal articles and blogs you may find of use:
Kay, R. et a (2009). ‘Examining the benefits and challenges of using audience response systems: A review of
the literature’ Computers and Education, 53. 819-827.
Latham, A. et al. (2014). Preference for anonymous classroom participation: Linking student characteristics
and reactions to electronic response systems. Journal of Management Education, 38(2). 192-215.
Knight, R (2015) 'Audience response using Poll Everywhere' City, University of London.
Hunsu, N et al (2016) "A meta-analysis of the effects of audience response systems (clicker-based
technologies) on cognition and affect", Volume 94, March 2016, Pages 102–119
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