Poll Everywhere Pilot

Background

There is currently no centrally-supported student response system available for faculty. Now that most students have one or more personal devices at their disposal (smart phone, tablet, laptop, etc.), the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) culture makes a separate physical device (e.g. iClicker) for engagement less relevant. To offer a new student response system in the classroom, we are piloting Poll Everywhere, a software-based system that works with any device that has a Wi-Fi connection and web browser capabilities.

Instructors can use Poll Everywhere to promote discussion among students, quickly gauge their knowledge, and receive and provide feedback instantaneously. By effectively using student response systems in the classroom, faculty can promote greater student engagement.

Students can reply to a question or prompt from a device such as their smartphone, laptop, or tablet, wherever they have an internet connection. Instructors use the same online tools and can integrate these apps with PowerPoint lectures, Keynote lectures, and the University’s learning management system (LMS), Canvas. The Poll Anywhere application tallies those responses and the instructor can view or present the data in a variety of ways.

ATS is conducting this pilot to determine whether instructors and students find enough value in the Poll Everywhere student response system to offer a campus license. If you are interested in learning more about this tool, please visit the Poll Everywhere website or email ATS at academictech@uchicago.edu.

Information for Pilot Instructors and Students

We have a limited pilot-sized Poll Everywhere license for the University that is integrated with both Canvas and our single-sign-on system, Shibboleth. This allows easier integration with rosters and the gradebook within Canvas. Here are some important notes for our pilot users:

• Your default email address in Canvas should be your cnetid@uchicago.edu (official school email). This allows Canvas and Poll Everywhere (via Shibboleth) to match you between systems. If you use another email address as your default email address in Canvas, your grades from Poll Everywhere will not import correctly.
• We recommend you log into Poll Everywhere via the “Poll Everywhere” link in the menu on your Canvas course site.
• If you should need to log in using PollEverywhere.com, be sure to use the SSO (single-sign-on) link in the SSO Hint on the login page. (The hint will appear once you enter your cnetid@uchicago.edu email address in the login form.)
• You must be logged into Poll Everywhere in order for your answers to be recorded in the Canvas gradebook.  Otherwise, Canvas will not receive your data and it will be lost.

General FAQs