Introduction
Poll Everywhere has emerged as a versatile tool across classrooms of different disciplines at the University of Chicago. This blog post presents feedback from a group of instructors who shared how they are leveraging this technology to enhance classroom engagement and learning outcomes. The goal of this blog post is to describe some popular and creative ways to use PE and how it supports student learning.
In-class formative assessment
The multiple choice, clickable image, and short answer type of polls are popular among instructors to gauge students’ understanding. Oftentimes instructors build in flexibility in their lectures to allow the course of instruction to be decided based on students’ performances in these polls. These assessment questions often feature application of the concept, and if a big portion of the class answers it wrong, the instructor may re-explain the concept and see the answers shift in real time. Seeing the distribution of answers, seeing peers who made the same mistake, and anonymity help students build confidence and lessen students’ feelings of being ‘impostors’.
Checking background knowledge among students is an activity easily achievable by PE through the word cloud question type. There is also a built-in icebreaker poll type that helps instructors show that they recognize students as individuals and care about their individual growth.
To end a class, a short question checking the understanding of key concepts or a quick poll about lingering questions (“muddiest points”) are great ways to help students retain knowledge. You may also have a Q&A session during your class (often at the beginning, end, or as a signpost of switching topics).
Student engagement
The poll questions by themselves change the format of the class and provide a mental break for the students. When asked opinion-based questions, such as “do you find this argument convincing?”, PE provides a convenient platform for students to quickly open their eyes about different perspectives. The competition and ranking activity types of PE are designed to elicit actions from students through gamified learning.
Outside-of-class preparation
You can use PE to accompany reading assignments before students come to class in order to gauge students’ engagement with reading materials. For feedback-type of prompts, you may leave the poll open overnight so students don’t feel rushed or pressured to fill them out a specific way. For example, you may assign a question like “what do you think can be improved in today’s class” or “rank your preference of topics to be discussed tomorrow” and leave the poll open between two class meetings.
Attendance tracking
Multiple instructors use PE to track attendance in class. PE’s geofencing location services ensure that students check in at the classroom’s location. However, this is not always reliable due to connection issues and issues with Canvas roster integration. If you’d like to track attendance using PE, import your Canvas roster into Poll Everywhere. It is good to also check the connection between the two platforms at least once during the quarter in case some students create a personal Poll Everywhere account for their own use and fail to switch to the school account. Identify students who consistently do not show up on Canvas, and keep an eye out for whether they show up in class physically.
Benefits Observed
All instructors reflected that they see better student engagement with the use of Poll Everywhere. The reasons include 1) separating students’ behavior indicating understanding, such as smiling and nodding, from the actual ability to explain and apply concepts, and 2) providing students with more confidence and validation by presenting the variation of responses. Indirectly, setting the pace of classes based on assessment results from PE simply improves understanding for the whole class. Students therefore have better and more even understanding of fundamental concepts, which helps the whole class engage with more complicated lectures or discussions better. Instead of only assessing students’ learning with exams, in-class PE use allows instructors to assess learning quickly and at lower stakes. It helps circumvent the common observation of civil attention among students—where they smile and nod during lectures and reflect that lectures sound logical, but cannot effectively apply the knowledge, and therefore perform worse than they expected in exams.
The PowerPoint integration with PE allows a smooth flow between course content and assessment questions, saving the hassle of flipping between tabs. In addition, long prompts often are difficult to fit in the PE frame, since it does not wrap sentences around. Displaying the prompt in PowerPoint on the same slide as the PE embed can circumvent this problem, and the same goes for mathematical formulae and equations.
Recommendations for New Faculty Users
Looking to implement Poll Everywhere in your classroom? Short multiple choice questions (the default question type) are a good place to start. For each class, once you have decided on the structure, identify good places where a short, low-stake assessment can be helpful. For example, after you’ve explained a concept and are moving on to applications, it’s good to have a short review question to make sure students can demonstrate their understanding of the concepts. Or, at the end of the class, a short quiz on key concepts can help improve retention of knowledge in addition to assessing understanding.
Further Resources and Getting Help
If you have questions about how best to leverage Poll Everywhere in your course, Academic Technology Solutions (ATS) is here to help! You’re welcome to drop by our virtual office hours (no appointment needed) with your questions. We also offer a range of workshops on topics in teaching with technology. And for 1:1 help, please feel free to book a consultation with an instructional designer.
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Chris Andrews, Fulya Ersoy, William Hoza, Tessa Huttenlocher, Ana Lima, Wen Yi Low, David D. Reid, Phoebe A. Rice, and Selma Yildirim for attending the feedback sessions hosted by ATS and sharing their experiences.
