DE Oracle @ UMUC

Enhancing Student Engagement with Polling

Floyd Csir

Instructional Support Specialist

Center for Support of Instruction

Published: March-April 2011

Category: » Online-pedagogy » Teaching-tools

Introduction

Polls can be used in the online classroom to prompt students to engage with faculty, their classmates, and content in an interactive manner. This article discusses polling and its benefits, strategies and examples for using polls in the classroom, and free polling tools that can be embedded in WebTycho.

What is Polling?

Although polls and polling are defined differently depending on the industry and their use, this discussion focuses on Web-based polls that can be used as a quick-response instructional method in the online classroom. They are similar to clickers that are used in face-to-face classrooms to support interactivity and provide immediate feedback on student learning. In this vein, polls provide a quick sampling of the status of student opinions or their knowledge/understanding of specific topics. Online polling tools and services allow the user to enter questions and predefined answer choices in an application on a third-party Web site. The finished product can be embedded into various parts of the WebTycho classroom. Students can respond to the questions, and aggregated results are immediately available to both students and faculty.

Online polls differ from surveys. A poll allows the user to ask a single question, people "vote" on the best answer from the available choices, and all voting results up to that point are accessible instantly by the voter and poll creator. Some polling tools allow voters to view existing poll results without even voting. A survey, on the other hand, contains many questions and question types whose results are not known on the spot.

Benefits of Polling

A survey at The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College found that students felt polling provided a sense of community in the online classroom (Corbeil, 2005). Survey results indicated that 89 percent of 64 graduate students believed polls improved social interaction, provided opportunities for learning alternative perspectives, and initiated discussion in online courses.

Using polling may help students feel more comfortable with discussing difficult topics. Some students who are introduced to new or controversial content may be reluctant to participate in discussions. However, the feeling of unease in discussing such topics may be abated through polling if a student sees that other classmates have a similar opinion. According to Corbeil (2005), "online polls provide an alternative to the written word, circumventing problems associated with student apprehension and the inability to verbalize comments." Polling can be designed so that students provide anonymous responses, which provides them the freedom to express their thoughts without being influenced by others (Martyn, 2007). Students no longer have to be afraid of having a wrong answer or fear that they will be penalized for providing a particular answer to a question.

Suggested Polling Strategies

Focused discussions: Information overload from lengthy threaded discussions can lead to non-participation (Jones, Ravid, & Rafaeli, 2004; Cheung & Hew, 2007). To help students with topics that do not need lengthy discussions, polling can help students focus on a specific topic, get them started in the right direction for a quick discussion, or help them get back into the subject matter if they have gone off-topic.

Evidence of student learning: Faculty can create focused poll questions that come from the readings, conference discussions, or upcoming quizzes as a way to see evidence of student learning and critical thinking. The results from these questions can be helpful for faculty to determine if they need to provide more information or ask more probing questions to help students understand a concept better.

Polling multiple sections: Polls can be re-used in multiple courses and subsequent semesters. If faculty teach multiple sections, they can ask students from different sections to respond to the same poll. Student responses from different sections using the same poll can provide a larger sample of information that may be appropriate, while polls unique to each section can indicate thoughts and attitudes of students specific to those sections. Note: If the same poll(s) will be used in subsequent semesters, faculty should remember to reset the student responses at the end of the semester.

Student expectations: It is a good idea to explain the purpose of polling so that students will be more interested in participating. For example, it helps to set student expectations if the instructor lets students know that poll participation is anonymous and nongraded, whether the poll results will be used for discussion purposes, or to help the instructor understand student consensus on a difficult concept.

Examples of Polling in the Online Classroom

Polls can be utilized in a variety of ways to increase student participation and provide opportunities for faculty to be in touch with what their students are learning. For example, faculty can develop poll questions for their students about sticking points on a difficult concept. Polls can also be used to assist students with quickly self-assessing their understanding of the course materials. With the responses to the polling question(s), faculty can adjust their content or feedback as needed.

Specific examples of how polls could be set up and used in the online classroom and what they might look are listed below: 

Introductions At the start of a new semester, faculty can use a poll to ask students to indicate their reasons/goals for taking the course or how they intend the course will contribute to their professional goals. This can be placed on the announcement page or in the conferences. In the Polldaddy example on the right, students can select more than one answer and can add a different response in the “Other” field.
Feedback A poll may help identify a concern or misconception students have about WebTycho features. Using a poll at the beginning of the semester can help instructors decide whether students would like certain features, such as Class Awareness or Workbook, available in the classroom. In these two Micropoll examples, faculty can provide students with an opportunity to show their preferences.
Pre-Assessment Polls can be used to identify areas where students need more help and or clarification prior to a graded assessment (Byrne, 2010). If students don't appear to be understanding a specific point on a difficult concept, the instructor can post a poll to focus student attention on specific answers or perspectives he or she wants students to consider. An example of this type of assessment question has been created with Widgetbox.

Polls can also be used for the following purposes:

• Summary of Results — After students participate in a poll, faculty can process the data results for their own instructional purposes, such as changing aspects of future discussions or quizzes.
• Student Synthesis of Results — Faculty might use a poll to ask students to analyze and summarize the significance of the poll results themselves, thereby generating further discussion and fostering critical thinking skills. Poll results and related discussions could be used for test questions or research paper topics in graded assessments.

Free Polling Tools to Try

Polling tools have varying levels of customization for how they are displayed. Results are typically shown after an individual and/or selected group votes in the poll. The tools listed below are free and also offer a paid subscription version with optional enhanced features. Most polls can be made public or private using, for example, a password. Faculty should consider the content of the poll when determining if it should be public or private.

When using these tools, only one account needs to be created (by the faculty), which keeps students from having to create separate accounts to participate in the poll. The poll services provided below generate embed code that can be copied and pasted into WebTycho Announcements, Course Content, or Conferences. Any advertisements seen in the polling tools are either self-promotions or links to partner sites and not links to third-party products. Please be aware of browser requirements before using a tool.

If you would like to embed any of the polling tools in your classroom, please see How to Embed External Multimedia Objects in a WebTycho Classroom for instructions.

Polldaddy -  Differentiates polls, surveys, and quizzes. Gives pre-configured options for styles and sizes. Includes numerous poll options. Limits responses to 100 per month for free version. Allows videos or images within the poll. Answers can be randomly displayed. Results and poll sharing can be disabled.

Widgetbox -  Polls are just one tool available in this suite of Web services. One can create a poll “widget” and add images. The generated embed code can be in Javascript or Flash format. The free version lets students view results prior to voting.  

Micropoll - Offers ease of use to create a poll and provides embed code or a direct link to the poll. Polls can have single-choice or multiple-choice answers, and answer choices and can be formatted as a drop-down menu. Participants may be able to share polls (and allow non-students to vote) on the open Internet without faculty knowledge or management.

Flexipoll - Although no registration is required, it does not have a polished interface. Once aquestion is set up, it cannot be revised.

NOTE: This article mentions a few examples of polling tools. These references should not be taken as an endorsement of any particular tool, technology, or company. If you are thinking of implementing any of these tools into your course, check with your academic administrator for suitability.

References

Byrne, R. (2010, July 24). Nine survey tools for teachers and students. Free Technology for Teachers. Retrieved from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/07/nine-survey-tools-for-teachers-and.html

Cheung, W., & Hew, K. (2007). Use of ground rules and guidelines in online discussion: A case study. In C. Montgomerie & J. Seale (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2007 (pp. 2753-2758). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.

Corbeil, J. (2005). Using web polls to enhance social interaction in computer-mediated distance education [Electronic version]. Issues in Information Systems, VI(1), 251-257. Retrieved from http://www.iacis.org/iis/2005_IIS/PDFs/Corbeil.pdf

Jones, Q., Ravid, G., & Rafaeli, S. (2004). Information overload and the message dynamics of online interaction spaces: A theoretical model and empirical exploration. Information Systems Research, 15(2), 194-210.

Martyn, M. (2007). Clickers in the classroom: An active learning approach [Electronic version]. Educause Quarterly, 2, 71-74.