Clicker questions | Infographic by Acadly
The definitive list of polling ideas to engage students in the classroom
In-class polls have been popularly used for attendance, quizzing and surveys, but they have a lot more potential to improve student learning and keeping students engaged with a course even outside lecture hours. Polling can be used to prompt in-class discussions and solicit responses on a multitude of topics, and as a nice aside, professors get data that is usable for the departmental assessment!
Moving away from the “no-phones” policy
In a recent study, 94% of students said they’d like to use their cellphones in class for academic purposes, with 75% of them believing that this has improved their ability to learn and retain information in the past. 59% of them felt that in-class polls would allow them to better engage with the content being taught.
About Acadly
Acadly is a student engagement and attendance automation platform for in-person, online, and hybrid classes. For online and hybrid teaching, Acadly leverages integration with Zoom. Read more about polling with Acadly below.
This week’s infographic is based on this excellent resource by the Center for Teaching and Learning at Washington University in St. Louis.
Active learning with polls
Polls can serve a wide array of purposes in your course, including:
- Engaging students in problem-solving, analysis, and idea generation
- Assessing student knowledge or understanding during or after class — to determine whether to revise a concept, employ a different pedagogical approach, or progress to the next lesson.
- Kickstarting class-wide discussions using results from a poll summarising student perspectives on a certain concept or idea.
- Enabling students to learn more about each other, find commonalities with their peers, and contribute to a collaborative learning environment.
- Encouraging students to relate course content to their interests and lived experiences by crowdsourcing examples from their daily lives.
- Soliciting feedback from students on ways to enhance the course to further their learning.
Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to create poll questions
Bloom’s Taxonomy can help you frame questions that test higher-order thinking and learning. E.g., verbs like “define” often test knowledge about facts, whereas questions beginning with the verb “solve” typically test higher-order learning. Of course, both kinds of questions are important for learning, and a mix of questions usually helps assess learning holistically.
Using Polls before, during, and after class
Making the most out of classroom polls
Identify your poll-able moments
Start by identifying your “poll-able” moments, like ones that stimulate conversation or quantify student understanding.
Stimulate peer-to-peer discussion
Break learners up into smaller groups or pairs. Ask students to discuss ideas, concepts, or opinions in order to come to a consensus and answer the questions in front of them.
Diversify the questions
Although the use of technology in the classroom really can spice things up, if your polls are always in the same pedagogical format (e.g., if polls only test memorisation of facts and figures), even they can become boring. Don’t be afraid to switch things up, or even to gamify your learning experience.
Make polls accessible
Plan ahead of time to reduce any barriers for students to fully participate in your poll — check if your students have access to the requisite devices, and to the internet. Make sure that image descriptions are included as alt-text or within the question text itself.
Use your analytics
Paying attention to the analytics that come along with your polling solution does more than just provide insight into your students’ understanding or opinions. Use your analytics to evaluate, inform, and improve the strengths and clarity of your course material and questions.
Using Acadly for polls
Acadly helps you share polls, quizzes, word clouds, and open ended discussion prompts with students during, before, or after the lecture. You can sign up and get started with Acadly for free.
