Poll Everywhere: Overview

Poll Everywhere is Yale's supported system for in-class polling. Using a cloud based "bring your own device" model for polling, Poll Everywhere allows the flexibility to be used in an online course context as well as in person. Poll Everywhere provides an expanded list of question types vs. Zoom polling including short answer, clickable images, ranking and others. Polling allows you to get real-time formative feedback from students. This feedback can be used to gauge student understanding of concepts, and allow for new strategies in engaging students in higher order thinking. In addition to live polling, static links can be generated for Poll Everywhere questions, which can be used to ask a question via a poll in an asynchronous context via email, posting on Canvas, or other communication medium.  

Yale holds a university-wide "hosted" license for Poll Everywhere. With the Yale license, anyone with a Yale NetID can create polls.  

To be added to the Yale University Poll Everywhere account please contact [email protected].

Table of Contents

This article will address the following information:

Why Use Poll Everywhere?

  • Create asynchronous and synchronous polling / engagement opportunities to collect formative assessment information from students / participants
  • Embed interactive polls in presentation and lecture materials
  • Create ad hoc poll questions to react organically to student questions and understanding

Use Cases for Poll Everywhere

A non-exhaustive list outlining what Instructors can use Poll Everywhere to facilitate include:

  • Polling students / participants at pre-determined or ad hoc points in presentation / lecture materials to gauge comprehension of the content
  • Provide varying opportunities for engagement with learning materials
  • Adopt gamification elements into course facilitation strategy
  • Grade class participation and/or attendance

How do I use Poll Everywhere in my Canvas Course?

To learn more about how to use Poll Everywhere to facilitate polling, please reference:

Vendor Demo Video

What will my students see?

When students come to a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation that is taking advantage of Poll Everywhere being embedded into the slide deck, students will see:

  1. The Poll prompt
  2. Any Poll responses
  3. The Poll join URL so they can access the poll from their computer or smart device
  4. A phone number and code to use an SMS text message to input their response

Additional Resources

For more assistance, please contact [email protected].