Audience Feedback with Poll Everywhere

At the Learning Solutions session I presented with Patti Shank last week I wanted to try some way to include live, real-time audience feedback. After looking at a few different options I decided on Poll Everywhere and it worked out really well. (At least I think it did. If you were there and have a different opinion please let me know!)

Check out this video to see it in action:

Here are some of the reasons I chose Poll Everywhere:

• Cost:The free account allows up to 40 responses per question/poll which is probably plenty in most cases…especially for me. You can check the official pricing here.
• No hardware required: Another great benefit is that your audience can respond using their phone via text message, twitter or the web.
• Easy setup*: It’s pretty easy to create your poll questions and each question comes with a downloadable PowerPoint file which you can use as is, or copy/paste into your own slide deck.

A few things you should know before you try it:

• You’ll need an internet connection to see the real-time updates. So test your connection in advance and always have a back up plan. I did an online survey of the same poll questions in advance and had that data as a backup. It also helped confirm what type of responses I could expect in the session.
• Although it is easy to setup, their default instructions for participants that are included on the downloadable slides are a bit confusing. I made up my own version, which seems to work well.

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I’ve had a  “royal” request for a job aid so stay tuned for that.

UPDATE: Here is the first attempt at a quick job aid for using Poll Everywhere in your presentation.