Poll Everywhere

AssessmentBehaviorismPolls

Poll Everywhere is a dynamic online polling platform that allows students to vote on custom teacher-generated polls through text messaging (SMS), smartphone, or computer by visiting this website. With a free educator account with Poll Everywhere, polls can receive up to 40 votes, enough to accommodate most classrooms. There are two types of poll questions that can be used in the classroom: multiple choice or open text. Teachers can easily generate polls to be deployed individually or as a series of questions. All polls can also receive submissions through a combination of devices. Students can text message, vote online with a smartphone, handheld device, tablet, laptop, or computer.

Students can respond by following the instructions shown on the poll when it is displayed. They respond by sending a text message to the number provided to them on screen or teachers can get and share a custom url with students to respond in the web app or even through Twitter. Teachers can set preferences for each poll about how they want to allow responses to be sent in.

Poll Everywhere can be used as a formative assessment strategy that enhances and amplifies classroom discussion, participation, and understanding. In addition to the quick-serve nature of the tool, site-generated polls can be integrated into PowerPoint presentations for real-time audience participation.

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Tool Snapshot

Price Free and paid plans
Learning Behaviorism
Ease of Use ★★★★☆
Privacy ★★★★☆
Accessibility ★★★☆☆
Class Size 40 max size audience for free and premium education accounts
ISTE*S Empowered Learner

Price

There are free and premium plans for K-12 teachers, which allow up to 40 respondents per poll. Educators can pay more for more respondents. There are also school-wide plans. For higher education instructors, there are free plans, plans where the student pays rather than the instructor, and plans for the instructor, department, and university. Regardless of the plan, the number of polls per account is unlimited. Users are not charged for voting on a poll; however, if they vote by text message then standard text messaging charges apply.

Ease of Use

Typically there is no need to register or sign up to respond to any poll questions unless polls are being used for attendance or grading purposes. Students can respond to polls even when they do not have a live Internet connection but to display the poll or view results in real time, the presenter must have an Internet connection.

Privacy

Poll Everywhere collects technical information, such as device and browser type, from individuals who register to create an account. For more, please see their official privacy policy: https://www.polleverywhere.com/privacy-policy

COPPA: Poll Everywhere does not collect or maintain personally identifiable information on the site or service from persons under 13 years of age, except in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (“COPPA”).

Accessibility

There is no mention on the website about accessibility features for students with disabilities but you can easily customize the fonts and colors of polls and charts.

Access

Tool marginalizes educators and students who do not have access to smart devices, cell phones with free text messaging, or the Internet in their classrooms.

Poll Everywhere Tutorial (by Technology for Teachers and Students)

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Poll Everywhere & the SAMR Model

Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR model offers a lens for examining how technology is adopted in a classroom. As you strive to incorporate online tools into your classroom, we encourage you to use this model as an analytic tool.

Here are some examples of how using multiple Poll Everywhere that might fit within the SAMR model:

Far too often, technology is used as a direct substitute for other low-tech tools (e.g., pencil and paper). While substitution has some benefits (e.g., students develop their technology skills and knowledge), we encourage you to think about how you might use Poll Everywhere  to modify or redefine learning.

Learning Activities

Ways to use live polling in class to engage and interact with students:

Ice Breakers

Assessment

Group Work and Peer Review

Review Assigned Readings

Think Pair Share Activities

First, present your polling question in class and ask your students to submit their responses without talking to anyone. Stop the poll and do not display the results graph to the class. Now, ask students to turn to the person next to them and discuss the question in a small group and come to a consensus within the small group. Start a new poll, asking the same question, still not displaying the results graph. Instruct your students to now submit their responses based on their group’s decision.  Now display the responses and also show the results of the initial poll taken without any discussion. You should see a larger number of students responding with the correct answer after discussing it among themselves. This activity works very well with a question that addresses common misconceptions about a certain concept.

Resources

Instructions: How to Poll a Class Live

(Pro tip: Some professors display a separate slide about how to respond, either while everyone takes their seats, or just before the poll starts.)

Research

Kappers, W. M., & Cutler, S. (2014). Poll Everywhere! Even in the Classroom: An investigation into the impact of using PollEverywhere in a large-lecture classroom. In 2014 ASEE Annual Conference.

Shon, H., & Smith, L. (2011). A review of Poll Everywhere audience response system. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 29(3), 236-245.

Author

This page was created by Maria Afzal.

This content is provided to you freely by EdTech Books.

Access it online or download it at https://edtechbooks.org/onlinetools/poll-everywhere.