Learning Design and Teaching Innovation

Polls and Surveys

What is it?

Polls and surveys are a quick way to gauge student knowledge of a topic, gather feedback, or to examine common beliefs about a topic. They can be used to create interactive and engaging content in lectures and tutorials by allowing students to become active participants.

Why use it?

To assess prior knowledge of a topic, or to get quick feedback. You can use polling to: - identify students’ misconceptions or preconceptions - adjust your presentation or activity on-the-fly based on feedback - evaluate comprehension or knowledge of material - engage students with a topic by encouraging them to debate questions before submitting a group response - identify and review curriculum issues with prompt feedback.

How does it work?

There are many polling tools available including Zoom polling, PollEverywhere, Socrative, Slido, Kahoot and Quizizz. The free versions of these may be restricted by the number of participants that can access the quiz, or by the number of questions you can ask so be sure to check any limitations prior to deciding on a tool. The polling feature in Zoom is available to all staff and allows you to poll participants in a Zoom meeting using single choice or multiple choice questions. The university also holds licences to some polling tools, so be sure to reach out to LDTI team if you need help selecting a tool that meets your needs.

Where to find resources

Guide to Zoom Polls and Surveys: Polling for Zoom or ServiceUON - Zoom for teaching

Acknowledgement

This resource is based on the “Not a waste of space” project materials produced by RMIT University and the University of Melbourne, with the support of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Except where otherwise noted, this content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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