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Polling Tools

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Polling tools enable a lecturer to pose questions to students in class and gather instant feedback on responses.  Some of the key uses and benefits of the system include:

  •  Immediate feedback for the lecturer – the lecturer can monitor understanding and assess whether to focus on specific aspects, slow down the pace of the lecture etc.
  •  Immediate feedback for students – students can monitor their understanding of key concepts in class.
  •  Peer instruction through creating opportunities for discussion – participants can be assessed before and after discussion amongst peers to measure learning gain.
  •  Game based learning- Individual and team competitions can be set up to asses learning.
  •  Increased engagement and participation in class – responses can be anonymised allowing students who would not normally raise their hands and respond to questions to do so.

Choice Activity

The Choice activity allows you to ask one single question on your module page so that students can selection from a number of possible responses. They can choose one or more options and they can update their selection if you allow them. Choices can be useful as quick poll to stimulate thinking about a topic; to allow the class to vote on a direction for the module, or to gauge progress.

Setting up a choice activity

  1. In a course, with the editing turned on, choose ‘Choice’ from Add an activity
  2. Give it a name and, if needed, a description.
  3. Expand Options to add the options you want learners to select from. You may give them the option to change their mind (update their selection) and make more than one selection. If you change Limit the number of responses allowed to Yes, then you must add limits for each option, or the options will all be shown as full. This might be useful if you wanted students to be able to sign up to a project and needed to limit spaces.
  4. Add in the options you want to give students, you can keep adding extra options if needed.
  5. You can choose to allow responses during a set period of time
  6. In Results, decide how you want results to be displayed and whether you want students to see how each others responses. See Teacher view below. You can also make sure of the unanswered column so you can easily see who has not yet responded and give them a nudge to add their response.
  7. Click save.

How does it work?

Student view

Students click on the Choice icon on the course page and make one or more selections according to the teacher’s settings. How (and if) the results are displayed depends on the your chosen settings.

 

Lecturer view

As a teacher, you can always see the results, but you can also choose whether or not to allow students to see each others’ choices and whether or not to allow them to see the names or merely the percentage of votes.

You can download their responses in a variety of formats. Responses may be ‘published’, ie made visible once the student has made a selection, or visible once the choice is closed.

Choice options may be restricted so only a certain number may make a particular selection, and you can also opt to display a column showing who have not made their selection.

You can make a selection on behalf of a student if necessary, for example if they are absent from class or else unable to get online.

Mentimeter

Mentimeter is a free online polling tool, allowing you to create interactive polls (called presentations) to engage your students.

Create a poll (presentation)

  1. To start using Mentimeter, go to https://www.mentimeter.com/ and sign up to a free account.
  2. Create your first poll (presentation) by clicking +New Presentation
  3. Choose your question type (these include multiple choice, word cloud, Q+A etc).
  4. Once you’ve chosen your question type, you’ll be taken to the content tab where you can enter your question, answers (if applicable) and choose your result layout (if applicable).
  5. The customise tab lets you set your slide settings (please note that some customise options are unavailable in the free version such as adding background images and changing colours)

This short video from Mentimeter shows you how to create your first presentation:

 

Collect Responses

  • Mentimeter is an entirely online platform that uses Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), so students can access it from their mobile phones, tablets or laptops – there are no clickers.
  • The instructions for students are at the top of each slide – simply go to www.menti.com and type in the code (note: mentimeter.com is for creating presentations, menti.com is for responding to them).
  • In class, open your Mentimeter presentation and click on Present in the top right corner.
  • Students access the presentation on their own devices, and you can see the results as they come in.

Screenshot showing example mentimeter question

What’s included in a free Mentimeter account?

  • Unlimited audience size
  • All question types
  • Unlimited Presentations
  • Two questions and five quiz questions per presentation
  • You are not able to export your results/ download your data
  • Mentimeter reserve their right to anonymise your questions and use them to inspire other presenters