Use of Polleverywhere by Carmen van den Berg
Participant Group Profiles
A range of sessions were held using PollEverywhere. The session sizes varied from 13-75 (year 1 C21 students and year 3 BSc Science and Intercalated students), and were tried out in a range of locations; some with Wifi only and no phone signal, some with phone signal and WiFi and some with neither. A range of question types were also used, mainly MCQs but open ended questions were also asking in certain qroups. C21 students were informed prior to the sessions to have their phones connected to eduroam
Used as follows:
- Through powerpoint embedded polls run from my laptop.
- Students asked to submit answers/questions via smart phone/tablet/computer after pushing questions to these devices.
Instructions to participants
- Using smartphone/tablet etc: m.pollev.com/CarmenCU Send answer (NB: CarmenCU is my own pollev.com page)
- Using smartphone when m.pollev.com doesn't work: www.polleverywhere.com/CarmenCU
- Using text message: text: poll number + answer to indicated telephone number
Connecting devices
Technologies that worked well: Ipad, Samsung smart phone, IPhone, laptop
Technologies that did not work too well: Nokia Lumia 710 windows phone: needed to use whole web address and needed sometimes to refresh screen to get to next question
User Recommendations:
- Ensure that all seminar rooms at Heath Hospital have good eduroam Wifi connection
- Ensure that students know how to connect to eduroam
- For embedding polls into powerpoint a Polleverywhere app needs to be installed on the computer used. Use of own laptop is recommended as this app cannot be installed on computers in seminar rooms . It is possible to run polls directly from the polleverywhere site through the workstation connected to the internet, but powerpoint embedded polls are easier to use.
- MCQ: works best as answers come in quicker and students’ response rate is higher. Is easier to use by students and also less technical issues
- open ended questions: not suitable if you want to have a discussion as it takes too long to get answers to open ended questions or students still not willing to participate.
- open ended questions : suitable for an 'ask the expert session', when questions can come in from the audience over the course of the session.
- moderator option: when using polls through powerpoint, use a separate tablet/smart phone to moderate and select the questions/answers to be projected on screen
Would I use it again?
Yes in following settings:
- MCQ quiz at start, middle or end of lecture
- open questions/answers from students in workshops: where student (groups) can submit their answers over a short period of time (e.g.5 min) after which they will be discussed.
No in the following settings:
- for quick interactivities during lecture at regular intervals
- for open ended questions where quick responses are required
Feel free to contact me with queries or if you want a demo.
Carmen (vandenbergcw@cardiff.ac.uk)
If you would like further information about registering or using PollEverywhere including obtaining access to the University license that allows for 330 responses per poll then please contact the MEDIC E-Learning Team (medic-elearning@cardiff.ac.uk)
