The recent Poll Everywhere visual changes have us thinking about the flexible student engagement opportunities available through the use of this and other polling tools. Whether you teach a large format class, a small seminar, in-person or online, strategies that reinforce learning and check for understanding are key elements of an engaging course. While typical methods of open-ended questioning are helpful for on the fly check-ins, you can also design knowledge check and participation activities using one of the polling tools available at NYU.
Among the advantages to using them, polls can facilitate learning through low-stakes embedded retrieval practice for all students. In-class retrieval practice provides many benefits to students, including better retention, enhanced knowledge organization, and improved transfer of knowledge to new contexts. You can design multiple-choice or short-answer questions to focus on particular points in the content, prompt students to complete a general free-recall to deepen overall understanding of course material, or use a mix of question types to improve metacognition and self-efficacy.
In addition to learning facilitation benefits, intentional poll design can enliven a classroom, building in effective student-to-content and student-to-teacher interactions. Poll Everywhere has a wide range of poll configurations, including word clouds, clickable images, and competitions that can bring an engaging element of play to a session.
Poll Everywhere Word Clouds can be used as a casual check-in like this example, or to gather open-ended responses to a content related prompt. Word Clouds have been visually updated to display all responses horizontally, which improves readability.
Use clickable images to add an interactive visual element to your content. This example enables participants to click on an area of the image they think is affected based on the information provided in the case study.
These activities can be embedded in a Powerpoint or Google Slides, but they can also be presented as standalone activities from Poll Everywhere or embedded directly in your Brightspace course. Two of the 2022 A&S Teaching Innovation Award winners utilized Poll Everywhere to increase participation, engagement, and learning in their classrooms. Read more about Rohini Qamra’s Teaching Innovation Award Project and Don Garrett’s Teaching Innovation Award Project to learn more about how this looks in the classroom.
Polling provides valuable data capture for faculty, as well. Such tools can be used for participation and Q&A opportunities that are more accessible for students who may be less inclined to raise their hands to speak in public. For example, Professors Duncan Smith, Esteban Mazzoni and Barbara Akum use Poll Everywhere for lecture participation in their Principles of Biology course. Faculty can review both individual and aggregated responses to take the pulse of the class, identifying pinch points in the content that are worth reviewing.
There are many tools available to conduct a variety of poll types in the classroom. For those interested in using this teaching strategy, we recommend reviewing our Getting Started with Polling guide, in addition to our Low/No Stakes Knowledge Checks Tool Comparison Chart to inform your decision making. If the flexible activity options of Poll Everywhere are of interest to you, see our Getting Started with Poll Everywhere guide and consider attending a webinar offered by Poll Everywhere. As always, we are happy to support you as you incorporate new tools in the classroom, so please contact your department liaison if you’d like to discuss what poll options would work best for your course.