Getting Students to Connect with Lecture and Each Other Using Poll Everywhere

Spring 2022
Facilitated by Jeff Saven, Chemistry, and Alex Weisiger, Political Science

Introduction

Large class
Student didn’t have to log in and he didn’t integrate it with his gradebook; ungraded assignment
- Typically gets at least half the students participating, and typically more
Sticks with mostly MC questions; found click-able images “funky”
“Why are you here” poll to understand students’ goals
Used a question to gauge student views on international grade before discussions and recitations
Used show/signal what might be on the midterm and help students be prepared
Help students understand what they do and do not know and weigh different views before discussing it in class
Chooses to suppress answers until students vote or leaves up for students to vote while they are settling in
Things from the polls tend to be retained by students

Used in a yearlong seminar that supports students engaged in their own research
Goals:
- Giving students feedback from their class on their presentations on their research meant for a broad audience and whether they use visuals effectively
- Help audience members pay closer attention/listen actively
- Promote peer review
Uses Poll Everywhere surveys to gauge the feedback and gives 3-5 minutes for students to complete their feedback after the fact
Reports are generated at the end as a PDF and shared with presenters
Issue with students misrepresenting being in class and participating in the polls/surveys even if they were not there

Some reported issues with students insisting they participated even if it wasn’t recorded, when they used it for grading
Some find that MC questions work the best; word clouds can be hard to manage in real time, though coaching students to use one word (or if they use phrases putting a hyphen between the words) or designing particular activities meant for this format worked better
Question about Jeff’s choice to share feedback that students get publicly; has there ever been questionable comments? Not yet, but scans the reports before posting them
- Can be a teachable moment that Jeff would bring up in class if that does happen
Looking for better tools for peer review in Canvas, but Poll Everywhere feels very immediate, which is good; reporting functionality also works well for this purpose

We’ve seen two different uses of Poll Everywhere
How to set student expectations and help them understand how different types of activities contribute to their learning; is not necessarily busy work but meaningful work