To begin using Poll Everywhere, please submit a request for a St. Olaf Poll Everywhere account. Once an account is set up for you, follow the information below to get started using Poll Everywhere. Some example scenarios that would benefit from Poll Everywhere:
- Virtual attendance
- Surveying users during a webinar or conference
- Promoting more audience participation during a class
- Opinion polls
Do I need an upgraded license or will the basic version work?
An upgraded license is only needed in cases where you need to accommodate for a large amount of respondents! This could be something like a large Webinar or conference (ie. hundreds of people trying to respond at the same time).
For assignments or quick polls, the basic version of Poll Everywhere can handle most situations. All the same tools are also available for the most part - just make sure ot log in using the Google button and a St. Olaf account. If you try to use the basic version and receiving an error or hitting a limitation on the amount of people that can respondent, submit a request to the IT Helpdesk to upgrade your account.
Getting Started with Poll Everywhere
If you would like to use Poll Everywhere - submit a request for a St. Olaf Poll Everywhere. An email will be sent from Poll Everywhere inviting you to join.
Click on Accept invitation to activate your account.
Note: If you already have an account - you may receive an "Invalid invitation" error that states you are already a member. If this happens, log into https://www.polleverywhere.com/ using the Google button and your St. Olaf email.
Once your account is activated, you will have access to the site as long as you have an activate St. Olaf account.
Starting an Activity
Click on the +Activity button to start a poll.
There are a variety of poll types that can be designed. Some common scenarios for Poll Everywhere by question type are:
- Multiple Choice: Polling the audience, user knowledge during a presentation, survey opinions
- Word cloud: What do people think about a particular subject or question? They can enter in multiple single words or short sentences to produce a graphic that updates in real-time
- Q&A: True/False questions, polling the audience's thoughts, virtual attendance
Example: Multiple Choice
Add a title to the question, click on +Add options for additional multiple choice options.
Click Create when finished.
To give users the ability to respond by visiting the website or using their phone - in the section for How people can respond, check options for Website and Text messaging. Poll Everywhere will include instructions for accessing the poll.
- If using Poll Everywhere in a virtual meeting with participants outside the organization (ie. a webinar or conference) - it is highly recommended to use both options
- Text messaging options are compatible with most smart phones
- Website options also work well for tablets or iPads
Audience restrictions & Identity
This allows the presenter control who and how people access the poll. Depending on the type of results that are needed, particular settings may need to be selected.
- Who can participate? - Indicate if everyone or just registered participants can answer the poll
- How do you want to identify participants? - Screen name will give the participants a way to enter a name before submitting an answer. Completely anonymous will not record any identifying information with submitted answers.
Response Settings
Indicate how many times people can respond or how many options can be selected. Selecting an option for "Show chart" will also produce a chart that shows the trends in responses.
- If enabling "Show chart" - this will update in real time while users answer the questions. The chart will be visible to everyone with access to the poll.
There is a wide variety of settings and question types that can be used - there may be preferred setting combinations needed to get the desired results, but here are some example recommended settings:
- Word Cloud, multiple submissions, user information not important - People can be allowed to respond "as many times as they like", enable the chart to show responses. Identity can be completely anonymous
- Q&A, virtual attendance - Restrict to only registered participants, participants should enter a screen name, only 1 response can be submitted, only 1 option selected, do not enable the chart
- Multiple choice, opinion survey - if user identity is not important everyone can participate and be anonymous. If some tracking is needed, indicate in the settings that everyone should participate and include screen name. Only 1 response, but multiple options could be selected. Show the chart at the end if the audience should be able to see the response trends.
Activating & Sharing the Poll
After the poll is completed, click on the Activate button on the top right corner of the screen. This will update and say Deactivate instead.
Click on Share to see options for sharing.
- Copy response link - obtain a URL to share in a video meeting, post on a website, or link on a presentation slide
- Copy embed script - embed the poll in a website or other 3rd party application
Participant Views - How does this look to the audience?
Enter a preferred name or update your screen name.
Answer the poll questions that appear on the screen.
If the "Show chart" option is enabled - a chart should update in real time while the poll is open so everyone can see responses.
Poll Everywhere Chrome Extension
For installing and using the Poll Everywhere for Chrome (ie. Google Slides), visit Poll Everywhere for Google Slides.
Want to try Poll Everywhere for PowerPoint?
Poll Everywhere as a PowerPoint add on that is available for anyone that has a Poll Everywhere account. This tool is available for both Mac and Windows PowerPoint.
(Video shows Mac example, but the process is the same for Windows)