Polling

How Kahoot works (Source: Kahoot, goo.gl/lYRLqy)

Polling is associated with web 2.0 because of the way it introduces interaction into presentations and classes. While it is possible to respond to polls on desktop or laptop computers, it is more common to use mobile devices for this purpose, with customised clicker hardware (also known as an audience response system) now having given way to the use of personal devices such as smartphones or tablets. In this way, polling is also closely associated with mobile learning.

Polling makes teaching (or conference and seminar presentations) more interactive by allowing attendees’ responses, comments and questions to be quickly and easily gathered, aggregated, and displayed. A teacher (or presenter) typically asks a question, which may be shown to the class (or audience) in an app or at a web address to which they are asked to navigate. Participants respond through their devices, and the results are displayed in real time on a screen at the front of the room. Results may be shown in different formats, for example as bar charts (for multiple-choice questions) or as lists of items (for open questions). Because responses are aggregated before being presented on the screen, they are ‘anonymous’ from the point of view of the audience (though they are not necessarily anonymous from the point of view of a teacher). This can encourage more reserved or reticent students to contribute answers in class, and all students are then able to see how their responses compare to those of their classmates. Naturally, if polls are set up so that student responses to open questions are completely anonymous, it may be necessary to begin by discussing netiquette rules about what is, and is not, appropriate to post.

A key advantage of polling is that it creates a feedback loop for educators, allowing them to check students’ levels of understanding by asking content-related questions (which may be multiple-choice or open questions) and to address any areas of misunderstanding or concern. Where class debates or discussions have taken place, educators may ask opinion-based questions to generate a snapshot of students’ views, potentially asking similar questions before, and again after, such discussions in order to capture shifting viewpoints.

Students can also use a polling system to ask questions or make comments. This can facilitate not only teacher-student interaction but, depending how it is set up, student-student interaction, which may be particularly valuable in large classes. Of course, polling questions or quizzes don’t always have to be created by teachers: students can create revision or other questions for their peers, thus shifting students’ learning in a more active, social constructivist direction.

Polling services are now commonly used at all levels of education, from early childhood and primary through to secondary and tertiary, though different polling services may be appropriate at different levels. Most polling services allow users to ask a single question or several questions, or to build a whole survey. Even if respondents mainly use mobile devices to answer, it may be more convenient to create questions or surveys on a desktop or laptop computer.

Common polling services, which can generally be used on both computers and mobile devices, and can be integrated into live presentations, include Poll Everywhere, Socrative and Wooclap. Services specifically designed for presentation slideshows include Aha Slides and Slido. Other more general survey services which can be used for polling include Formbricks, Shout (formerly KwikSurveys), SurveyMonkey and SurveyNuts. AI-enabled survey services include BlockSurvey and the GPT Kraftful Surveys. Forms services like Google Forms and Microsoft Forms can serve a similar purpose. Microblogging services like Twitter/X may also be appropriate for gathering student or audience comments and questions.

Kahoot! has become popular for its gamified approach to polling, with alternatives including Blooket and Gimkit; Socrative, mentioned above, also offers gamification elements. AnswerGarden is another popular polling service which limits replies to 20 characters (or, optionally, 40 characters) and displays a word cloud of the responses, with respondents able to upvote (endorse) each other’s responses and thereby increase their font sizes; Mentimeter also offers a word cloud display format. Flip (formerly Flipgrid) may be used for video polling/responses, as well as text and audio responses. AI is now beginning to be integrated into polling services, such as the AI Menti Builder from Mentimeter.

Plickers is a service which may be useful in a context where the teacher, but not the students, can make use of a mobile phone or tablet: it allows teachers to print out multiple-choice answer cards and give one set to each student; each student then holds up their selected multiple-choice answer card in response to a question from the teacher, who can use the camera on their phone to scan all the codes held up by the class and aggregate class responses through the Plickers app.

Last update: May 2024.