Benefits of polling

In-class polling enables simple and easy one-to-many dialogue and can enhance students' active learning, participation, and improve learning outcomes especially in large classes or classes taught in online or hybrid modes.

In-class polling can be incorporated into lectures and online classes to increase student participation, which can have a strongly positive effect on learning outcomes when used as a part of an active learning strategy, whether it be peer or cooperative learning, debates, or other activities.

Polling activities can even increase attendance and class retention if connected to an assessment, for example a participation grade of 10%.

In-class polling offers an efficient means to monitor progress and problems in peer-learning groups and to intervene when either the class is very confused or has understood the concept thoroughly and is ready to move on. There are two recommended approaches:

Classwide discussion method

Begin with a question, proceed immediately to small-group discussion to answer it, followed by full-class discussion.

Peer-learning model

Students are required to think and answer independently first, see the answers, and then spend time in groups struggling to reach a consensus answer.

Some data indicate that the latter method works better in larger classes, because individual answers force stronger engagement, and the class discussion portion in classwide may introduce too much confusion, unless the question asked is very difficult. A combination of the two methods by an observant instructor may be best (Caldwell, 2007).