The Poll page enables you to collect real-time anonymous feedback from your attendees by having them vote, answer a question, or respond to a statement you have made. With the Polling page, you must provide a question or statement and between two and seven responses. Each computer logged in to the session gets one vote per Poll page.
To create the Poll page as a resource in the Content pane, click on the Share menu in the Content pane and choose Poll Page.
If you would rather have the Poll page be a slide within your slide set, right-click on a thumbnail and choose Insert New Page. In the menu that opens, choose Poll from the available choices.
Once you have chosen to create a Poll, the Create Poll window will open, giving you a place to enter your questions and provide choices or answers.
Enter a question and then provide between answer choices. You can have as few as two answers or as many as seven. When you are finished typing in the question and the answer choices, click the OK button. If you change your mind about making the Poll, you can also click the Cancel button.
After you click on the OK button in the Create Poll area, your Poll will appear on the screen. It will show your question and the answers that you provided.
Attendees and presenters can vote by clicking on the colored squares or inside the radio buttons by the squares. Each computer logged in to the meeting gets one vote, regardless of how many times a square or radio button is clicked. As participants begin voting, the presenters will see a bar graph with percentages and a vote tally appear on their screens. At this point, the attendees in the meeting will not see the bar graph, percentages or vote tally.
Where you would normally see your Annotation tools, in the lower center part of your console, you now see Polling tools. The default for a Poll slide is to have the results hidden and the polls open. With the Polling tools, you can decide whether or not to show the results, open or close the polls, edit the poll, or clear the voting results.
If you look in the lower left and right sides of your screen, you will see indicators that tell you if the results are hidden and shown and whether the polls are open or closed. When the results are hidden, only those logged in as presenters can see the bar graph, percentages and vote tallies. Attendees will only see their own vote. When the results are shown, attendees see the same bar graph, percentages, and vote tallies that the presenters see. When the polls are open people can vote and change their vote as many times as they wish. However, no matter how many times participants click, their computer only gets one vote. When the polls are closed, voting is locked. Participants cannot change the answer that they have chosen and those who have not yet made a choice are prevented from entering a vote. If you are ever unsure if the results are hidden or shown, or the polls are open or closed, just look to the lower left and right hand sides of your Poll slide.
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The Edit Poll enables you to edit the question or the answers. This includes the addition and removal of answers. When you edit the Poll slide, all the voting results are automatically removed and reset to zero. If you have closed the polls, it is important to remember to reopen the polls after editing to give participants a new chance to vote.
When you click the Clear Polls button, all the votes are removed and reset to zero.
You may get a polling report from the WisLine Web Coordinator after your meeting. This polling report will list all the polls and answers that were given provided that you have not cleared the results. If you want the polling report, you should request it when you are setting up the meeting.
Please note that the polling report normally contains the names of the participants and how they voted. If you choose to get the polling report with the names, it is your responsibility to inform your participants that you will be able to see how they voted and secure all the proper releases in advance of your meeting. Instructional Communications Systems will not inform your attendees or collect legal releases for you in the event that you wish to have a polling report. If you want the polling report, but do not wish to see the names, you may request an anonymous polling report, which will give you the results, but not the names.
Some uses for the Poll
The Poll can be used in different ways depending on your needs.
Ice Breaker
Although this is usually used to get your participants involved at the start of a session and after breaks, it can be put in at any time you want to add a little levity to a session or get the participants involved. Try some of these sample ice breaker questions or make up your own.
Audience Information
If you are presenting to an audience that you don’t know a lot about, you may want to find out more about them so you can tailor your presentation to meet their particular interests or needs. Try some of these sample questions or make up your own.
Content Mastery
If you are trying to teach something as part of your presentation or session, you want to make sure that people are learning. Try to ask questions that will help you to gauge whether or not your participants are truly learning. Make sure to keep the results hidden until you close the polls, as this will help to keep participants from being influenced by other’s votes.
Session Evaluation
If you hope to improve your sessions in the future, you’ll want to get some audience feedback about ways that you can improve for future sessions. If you want to gain good information, you’ll need to create several slides. Try some of these sample questions and some of your own.
Keep in mind that the poll does not have any place for the participants to add comments. Some presenters prefer to use online surveys to gather session evaluations.
Instructional Communications Systems, University of Wisconsin-Extension
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