Polling Tools
Polling tools enable instructors to ask questions during class and receive student responses in real time, making them a valuable addition to any teaching practice. Polls can be used to gauge student understanding, gather immediate feedback, and encourage active engagement with course material. They are also useful for taking attendance, checking comprehension, and conducting low-stakes assessments.
Popular polling tools include iClicker, Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter, and Slido.
How Polling Tools Work
Online polling tools, also known as audience response systems, have replaced handheld clickers – devices that transmitted answers via radio frequency to a receiver connected to the instructor’s computer.
Modern clickers work by connecting students to a web‑based polling platform through their phones, laptops, or tablets. When the instructor launches a question, students submit responses through a browser or app, and the platform instantly aggregates and displays the results on the instructor’s screen in a visual form (e.g., charts or percentages). This provides both student and instructor with valuable real time feedback. In addition, the polling system also records each submission for participation tracking or later review.
Sample Clicker Activities
- Basic Group Work – Students work as a group and submit one clicker response.
- Consensus/Peer Instruction – Students first answer individually, then pair up with a classmate to discuss and submit the answer again. You can then either form groups or go straight to a full class discussion. The idea is to eventually move towards the entire class agreeing to a single answer using peer instruction.
- Peer Assessment – Anonymous class evaluation or feedback on presentations, group answers, etc.
- Thought Questions – Groups presented with a question, one group chosen to give answer (either through open ended clicker question or verbally). Remaining class uses clicker to indicate if they agree. If not, then another group has a chance to present their answer and the process is repeated.
- Debates – Can be formal or informal, using clickers to poll the class on their opinion on a topic or their agreement with the current speaker.
Question Suggestions
Below are some question types that can be used with clickers to promote deeper learning.
- Student Perspective Questions – Connect course material to their own lives.
- Select Best Answer Questions – May have no right answer; may have multiple correct answers; may combine with consensus type activities (see below).
- Misconception Questions – Present a common misconception or error as an option in the possible answers. Real-time results are helpful and can be used to discuss the misconception.
- Prior Learning Questions – Use to determine prior learning or experiences.
- Complex Thinking Questions – Usually with two or three answers (i.e., True-False; A, B, or C), but students have two options for each (high confidence A, low confidence A, high confidence B, low confidence B, etc.). Use to discuss reasons for confidence in a particular answer.