Poll Everywhere - Getting Started

Getting Started with Poll Everywhere: Creating and Building Activities

Overview

Poll Everywhere is an audience engagement platform that allows instructors and presenters to create interactive activities such as polls, quizzes, word clouds, clickable images, and Q&A sessions. Participants can respond using a web browser, mobile device, or text message, making it easy to gather feedback and encourage engagement during classes, meetings, and presentations.

This guide covers the basics of creating and managing activities in Poll Everywhere.

Before You Begin

Ensure that you have:

  • An active Poll Everywhere account
  • Access to the Poll Everywhere web portal
  • Appropriate permissions within your organization's Poll Everywhere environment

To access Poll Everywhere:

  1. Navigate to your institution's Poll Everywhere login page or visit https://www.polleverywhere.com.
  2. Sign in using your institutional credentials.
  3. From the dashboard, select Activities from the navigation menu.

Creating a New Activity

Activities are the individual interactive elements that participants respond to.

Step 1: Create an Activity

  1. From the Activities page, select + Activity 
  2. Choose an activity type from the available options.

Common activity types include:

Activity Type Description
Multiple Choice Participants select one or more answers from a list.
Word Cloud Responses appear visually, with frequently used words displayed larger.
Q&A Participants submit questions and vote on others' questions.
Clickable Image Participants click a specific area on an image.
Ranking Participants rank options in order of preference.
Open-Ended Participants submit free-text responses.
Competition Gamified quiz activities with scoring and leaderboards.
  1. Enter a title or question prompt.
  2. Configure response options as needed.
  3. Select Create or Save.

Configuring Activity Settings

After creating an activity, you can customize its settings.

Response Settings

Select Configure or Activity Settings to adjust:

  • Response limits
  • Correct answers (for graded activities)
  • Participant anonymity
  • Moderation options
  • Response deadlines
  • Voting permissions

Visual Settings

Customize:

  • Colors and themes
  • Display options
  • Response visualization style
  • Presentation appearance

Participant Restrictions

Depending on your account permissions, you may be able to:

  • Restrict responses to registered participants
  • Require authentication
  • Limit the number of submissions per participant

Organizing Activities

As your activity library grows, organization becomes important.

Create Folders

  1. Navigate to Activities.
  2. Select New Folder.
  3. Enter a folder name.
  4. Move related activities into the folder.

Suggested organization methods include:

  • By course
  • By semester
  • By presentation
  • By department or project

Rename Activities

To rename an activity:

  1. Open the activity.
  2. Select the title.
  3. Enter a new name.
  4. Save your changes.

Building a Sequence of Activities

For presentations or classes, you can organize activities into a sequence.

Using Folders as Presentation Sets

  1. Create a folder for your session.
  2. Add activities in the desired order.
  3. Arrange activities by dragging and dropping them within the folder.
  4. Launch activities sequentially during your presentation.

This approach helps maintain a smooth flow during instruction or meetings.

Previewing an Activity

Before sharing with participants:

  1. Open the activity.
  2. Select Preview.
  3. Review the participant experience.
  4. Verify:
    • Question wording
    • Answer choices
    • Correct answer settings
    • Visual appearance

Testing activities before a live session helps prevent errors and improves participant experience.

Activating and Running Activities

To collect responses:

  1. Open the desired activity.
  2. Select Activate.
  3. Share the participation instructions displayed on screen.
  4. Participants can join by:
    • Visiting the Poll Everywhere response URL
    • Entering the activity code (if applicable)

Responses will appear in real time.

Editing Existing Activities

To modify an activity:

  1. Open the activity from your dashboard.
  2. Select Edit.
  3. Update the question, response choices, or settings.
  4. Save changes.

Note: Some changes may affect previously collected responses.

Duplicating Activities

To reuse an activity:

  1. Locate the activity.
  2. Select the More Options menu.
  3. Choose Duplicate.
  4. Rename the copied activity.
  5. Modify as needed.

Duplicating activities is useful for recurring courses, meetings, or assessments.

Best Practices

  • Keep questions concise and easy to understand.
  • Use a variety of activity types to maintain engagement.
  • Test activities before presenting.
  • Organize activities into folders for easier management.
  • Consider accessibility when selecting images and color schemes.
  • Allow adequate response time for participants.

Additional Resources

For advanced features, explore:

  • Poll Everywhere Competitions
  • Attendance Tracking (Coming soon in 2.0)
  • PowerPoint Integration

Visit the Poll Everywhere Help Center for detailed product documentation and feature updates.

Print Article