In-Class Polling

In-class polling is an active-learning exercise that re-engages students and gets you real-time information about what the whole class is learning.

Getting Started

Try in-class polling as a technological replacement for a show of hands.

Pose a question.
Collect responses through an in-class poll.
Discuss the responses with the class, commenting on why particular answers are more correct than others.

Polling technologies implement multiple choice questions; some enable short, free responses. These technologies are supported by Cornell:

Everyone gets involved. Students are anonymous to their peers, making them less nervous about wrong answers.
The response distribution can be shown to the whole class, which can quickly engage students—especially when there is disagreement.
Polling can be integrated with other active-learning techniques, such as think-pair-share or one-minute memos, to make response collection quick and easy.

Polling might seem daunting if you’ve never tried it, but it’s easy to learn. Faculty training is available through CTI. MTEI is also happy to consult on implementation and poll design!
You don’t have to go all in. You can start with just a quick poll once in a while. As you build up experience, you will find new opportunities naturally present themselves.
Try to write poll questions that will provoke interest and discussion. If there is to be a single correct answer, craft distractors (wrong answers) that will be tempting to 30–70% of students. Make sure to discuss not just right answers but also wrong answers. Explain the mistakes students might be making, or provide written explanations afterwards.

Polling technologies support synchronous remote and hybrid responses. That is, you can have a mix of students who are in-person as well as remote.
Asynchronous polls would be more akin to quizzes or surveys that students complete on their own time. They lack the interactivity of synchronous polls.
Panopto videos can contain embedded quizzes that students must pause to answer before moving on to the next video segment.