Use examples:
Quickly assess student comprehension of a particular topic
Improve student engagement in your classes through participation
Ask students for questions to clarify and let them vote to pick which one to focus on
Use polling as a formative assessment tool
What is Poll Everywhere?
Poll Everywhere is a web-based software that allows audience members/students to respond to polls and surveys from their cell phones or laptops during a class or presentation, and have the results tabulated in real time on a screen at the front of the room. It can perform similar pedagogic functions as our old “clickers” but it can also do much more.
Instructors can now create multiple kinds of polls (multiple-choice, open-ended, Q&A, Brainstorming, clickable image polls, and more) and easily integrate them in their PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides presentations.
Using Poll Everywhere
- Download the PollEverywhere Add-on for Windows or the PollEv Presenter application for Mac.
- Install it and log in to your Berkeley Law Poll Everywhere account. If you don’t have one yet, please send an email to bcourses-support@law.berkeley.edu so we can set you up with one.
- Create new polls (from the downloaded app or directly from the web interface), and (optionally) insert those polls into your slide deck. Make sure the app is open, you’re logged in and you have a working Internet connection for your polls to work correctly when using them.
- Present your polls from PowerPoint (or your favorite presentation alternative) after inserting them or directly from the web browser.
If you have any questions, schedule an appointment with our Instructional Technology team so we can help you get started with Poll Everywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can control how your polls look while presenting to show/hide results, lock your poll to prevent response changes or participation or even empty previous results for a poll if you’re going to reuse it. Just hover your mouse while presenting your poll in full screen mode to reveal those options:
If you’re experiencing problems using Poll Everywhere, here are a couple of things you can check. Most likely, these will fix your problems but if they don’t, please contact us.
1. Make sure your laptop or iPad is connected to the internet
Sometimes the WiFi icon looks OK but there is actually no working connection. Use a web browser and try opening a couple of pages to make sure that’s not the case.
2. Make sure the Poll Ev Presenter App is open
This is crucial for your computer to reach your Poll Everywhere account and show your polls and student responses.
On a Mac, that’s a separate App. You can download the latest version from here. Make sure it’s open and logged in to your account when presenting:
On a Windows PC, it’s a PowerPoint Add-on which you can download from here. Make sure you install it and log into your account from the Poll Everywhere tab in PowerPoint account before presenting:
3. Make sure you’re running the latest version of the Poll Ev Presenter App
New versions are released every few months with new features, improvements and bug fixes. Please make sure you’re running the latest version by checking Check for Updates… from time to time and allowing new versions of the App to be installed.
When using any of our iPads in the Classroom, you will find a Polling folder in the Home screen with three icons. Here is what each one of them does:
What Berkeley Law instructors are saying:
“I use Poll Everywhere to take the temperature of the class and see if I’m moving too fast”
“I urge other fellow professors to use it”
“There is a bit of a learning curve from clickers but I think it’s worth it”
“I’m always asked [by students] to do more polls”
What Berkeley Law students are saying:
“It’s a nice, anonymous way of seeing whether you are understanding the material”
“It’s a good way to break up the standard class format“
“I really enjoy Poll Everywhere!”
“It usually works!”