Web Polling
What is it?
Quick polls on keypads or mobile devices can improve student interaction and engagement in lectures and tutorials. They are an opportunity to ask questions, gain immediate feedback from students and adjust lectures/tutorials accordingly. Well-structured, challenging concept questions with good 'distractors' and answers that are plausible will reflect common misperceptions students have about the topic.
Who uses it?
Academic staff have experimented with VotApedia in large lecture courses in Civil and Mechanical Engineering. Usage has been adapted to fit individual instructor’s needs. We have designed question-specific polls completed during class, a generic poll so questions can be posed on the fly during class, and a poll to which students responded before class to help focus learning for the day.
How does it work?
With mobile phones ever on the rise online surveys have become a real alternative to clickers allowing students to respond to web-based surveys from their own devices.
- UQ poll
UQ poll is a web based student response system currently piloted at UQ. A User guide is available and ITS project manager John Currie can be contacted for participation in the trial. - VotApedia
VotApedia is a free audience response by mobile phone service. Users can call or SMS a number to cast their vote. There is no charge - you will receive an engaged signal. David Jones’ blogpost “Using Votapedia” is well worth a look to get started. - Online poll tools
The free online poll landscape is ever changing and users need to think carefully about what they need. Free plans usually have limitations - sometimes the number of questions in a poll is limited, sometimes the number of users who can take the survey. Free Google Forms allow basic functionality for unlimited number of questions and responses. Princeton University’s Educational Technologies Center provides a comprehensive evaluation of Alternatives to Physical Clickers in the Classroom (2012).
More information
Clicker techniques described in An instructor's guide to the effective use of personal response systems in teaching (2009) by the University of British Columbia are just as useful for polls.
A quick start guide (2012) by Dartmouth College provides information about Poll Everywhere and incorporating multiple choice and open ended polls into lectures.