In-class polling

In-class audience-polling technology allows students to provide quick responses to multiple-choice questions. Students answer questions or problems using their devices. Student responses are received, aggregated, and made available to the educator. During class, students’ names may not be associated with responses, so they can answer freely. The educator can display the live results to students. Responses may be associated with students’ names for grading purposes depending on the software used. Software packages include MARS, Poll Everywhere or Kahoot. Polling can also take place before or after class.

In-class polling provides quick feedback to students to help validate their own learning, can help students improve their retention of course material and provides an easy way for reluctant students to participate in active learning.

In-class polling is

effective for:

best to pair with:

  • Clarifying understanding
  • Identifying misconceptions
  • Immediate feedback
  • Case study
  • Clarification pause
  • ConcepTest
  • Think, pair, share
  • Recall, summarise, question, connect and comment
  • Top twenty
  • Trivia

Example 1

Educators check students' understanding prior to introducing new content.

Example 2

Used prior, during or after lectures for immediate understanding of content by students.

Example 3

Students’ answers can help educators modify content in preparation for and during class.

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