Introduction
Want to learn how to use online polling in your classroom to engage your students? Echo 360 is a great tool for this purpose.
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Overall, online polling is a simple and effective tool that college instructors can use to enhance student engagement and participation, assess understanding, provide instant feedback, and increase retention.
1. Engage students
Online polling can be a great way to keep students critically engaged throughout class. By asking 1-3 questions per class, a professor can keep their students actively involved in the learning process (and prevent their students from tuning out).
2. Encourage student participation by decreasing student anxiety
Poll questions provide an anonymous way for students to answer questions during class, lowering student anxiety about being judged by their peers about their responses.
3. Incentivize student attendance and participation
Using Echo360 allows a professor to give their students points for coming to class and participating, rewarding their engagement.
4. Assess student understanding
Online polling can help instructors assess whether their students are following along with the lecture during class. By asking questions to check for understanding, the instructor can quickly determine if there are any areas that need further explanation or if they can move on to the next topic. Displaying the results of the students’ answers to polls can also spark discussions and provide students with real time feedback on their understanding of course concepts.
5. Increase classroom inclusivity
Polling gives every student in a classroom a stress-free way to express their understanding with the instructor, which is one reason why using polling has been shown to improve course performance for all student populations while also reducing performance gaps.
6. Enhance student learning
Research has shown that active learning techniques like online polling encourage active processing of concepts and ideas, increasing student retention of information.When students process concepts and ideas through questions, they are more engaged in the learning process.
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References
- Ballen, Cissy J. et al. “Enhancing Diversity in Undergraduate Science: Self-Efficacy Drives Performance Gains with Active Learning.” CBE life sciences education 16.4 (2017): ar56–.
- Bruff, D. (2010). “Classroom Response Systems (‘Clickers’).” Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved July 21, 2023 from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/clickers/.
- “Clickers/Personal Response Systems.” Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative. https://cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/instructor/prs
- Cooper, Katelyn M., Virginia R. Downing, and Sara E. Brownell. “The Influence of Active Learning Practices on Student Anxiety in Large-Enrollment College Science Classrooms.” International journal of STEM education 5.1 (2018): 23–18.
- Eddy, Sarah L., and Kelly A. Hogan. “Getting Under the Hood: How and for Whom Does Increasing Course Structure Work?” CBE life sciences education 13.3 (2014): 453–468.
- Freeman, Scott et al. “Active Learning Increases Student Performance in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 111.23 (2014): 8410–8415.
- Hogan, Kelly A., and Viji Sathy. Inclusive Teaching Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom. First edition. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2022.
- Sathy V, Hogan K. “How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive Advice Guide.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. (2019).
- Smith, MK et al. “Why Peer Discussion Improves Student Performance on In-Class Concept Questions.” Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 323.5910 (2009): 122–124.
- Tanner, Kimberly D. “Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity.” CBE life sciences education 12.3 (2013): 322–331.
- Theobald, Elli J. et al. “Active Learning Narrows Achievement Gaps for Underrepresented Students in Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 117.12 (2020): 6476–6483.
- University of Colorado Boulder Office of Information Technology. “CUClickers - Pedagogical Resources.” Accessed July 21, 2023. https://oit.colorado.edu/services/learning-spaces-technology/cuclickers-iclickers/help/instructor-resources/pedagogical
How do I do polling in my class?
We recommend using Ech360 to anonymously poll your students in your class. Using Echo360 polling is free for Brandeis faculty and it allows instructors to give students credit for participating in the polls (thereby incentivizing the students to attend class and to be intellectually engaged).
- For help requesting Echo360 integration for your course (if necessary), click here.
- For help creating polls in Echo360, click here.
- For help connecting your Echo360 to your course LATTE page, click here.
- For help using Echo360 polling during class, click here.
- To see how students respond to Echo360 polls, click here.
- For help downloading Echo360 polling data at the end of the semester to assign participation points, click here.
- For examples of course documents regarding Echo360, click here.
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