Whether teaching in the classroom or remotely, you can add polling activities to your classes to engage students, test their knowledge, and base discussion. Polls can also be used to take a “temperature check” at the beginning of class to gauge the mood of your students. Below are examples of the variety of options faculty can use to poll their students.
Zoom includes a basic polling feature allowing you to ask your students multiple choice questions during a web conference. Using Zoom polls, you can check your students’ current mood, test their retention of content, or introduce a new concept. Before your Zoom session, you can create polls in the Zoom web portal for your meetings (instructions). You can also add questions during the meeting. You have the option of making a poll anonymous and allowing for a single-answer response or multiple selections. To launch a poll during a Zoom meeting, you must first be logged in as the host.
Poll Everywhere is a web-based polling tool that you can use in or outside the classroom to engage students. It features a variety of question types--including multiple choice, word cloud, open-ended response, clickable image, and up/downvoting--and allows students to respond to polls with their mobile device or computer.
Examples of ways you can use Poll Everywhere with your students:
You can create a free basic account at www.polleverywhere.com that can be used to poll up to 40 students at a time. Students typically respond anonymously and don’t require Poll Everywhere accounts. For larger classes, you can purchase an instructor license with additional features and the ability to poll up to 700 respondents. Alternatively, you can have students purchase an individual license.
Read about the experiences of Georgetown faculty who participated in the Poll Everywhere pilot.
With iClicker Cloud you can poll students using a number of different question types: multiple choice, word cloud, open-ended, numeric, and clickable image. Students respond to polls using iClicker Reef on a mobile device or with a computer browser. iClicker Cloud is also compatible with iClicker remote devices (requires an iClicker instructor kit).
To get started, see the iClicker Cloud Getting Started Guide (Mac | Windows).
Then visit the iClicker Cloud site, where you can:
iClicker Cloud is integrated with Georgetown’s Canvas learning management system. By linking iClicker Cloud to your Canvas course, you can sync your course roster and send poll session scores to your Canvas Gradebook.
Then, after setting up their iClicker REEF account, students will be automatically added to your iClicker Cloud course. To ensure they are included in your iClicker Cloud roster, students must use their @georgetown.edu email address with their iClicker account.
Unless an iClicker license is provided by their school, students will need to purchase an iClicker REEF license (iClicker offers a free 14-day trial).
Still using iClicker Classic? iClicker Cloud provides more question types and functionality than iClicker Classic, integrates with the Canvas Roster and Gradebook, and gives you the option of allowing students to respond to polls in the classroom using iClicker remote devices (in addition to mobile devices and laptops). We recommend that Georgetown instructors using iClicker Classic switch to iClicker Cloud.
For assistance with iClicker, including help with specific technical issues, instructors and students should visit the iClicker Support Site.
See this chart comparing features of polling with Zoom, Poll Everywhere, and iClicker Cloud.
