Polling tools are designed for quickly and easily gathering instant feedback. Polling can be a tool for active learning by providing instructors with a way to gauge understanding, conduct short assessments (e.g. quizzes), and make instruction more interactive. Beyond instruction, polling can be a useful tool for student organizations, campus affinity groups, working groups, and more.

Polls are usually best for quick, straight-forward questions; for more complex, multi-question data gathering, see UCI Surveys

Campus Tools for Polling

The campus supports two primary audience response polling tools: Poll Everywhere and iClicker. Both tools offer real-time and asynchronous options as well as integration with the UCI Canvas gradebook. Campus support for these services is focused on instruction, though Poll Everywhere is also available campus-wide, for activities unaffiliated with instruction. 

Campus Tools that include Polling

There are a few other campus tools that, while not primarily designed for polling, include polling options.

• Ed Discussion

  Q&A tool that includes a built-in polling option. Best for simple polls in classes that are already using Ed Discussion more broadly.

  Learn more:
  Getting Started for Instructors
  Using Ed Discussion
  Tips and Tricks for Instructors

• Zoom

  UCI’s primary video conferencing platform that includes a simple polling option. Best for simple polls in classes that are already using Zoom (e.g. for remote instruction).

  Learn more:
  Polling for meetings

Other Options

There are a wide variety of polling tools that instructors may choose to use. The following are a few of the many third-party options that do not have formal support or funding on campus, but may be good options depending on your needs:

• Kahoot!

  https://kahoot.com/
  Game-based quiz and polling tool that is easy to set up and run and designed to be fun!

• Pear Deck

  https://www.peardeck.com/
  Poll-building tool with Google Slides and PowerPoint integration options.

• Zeetings

  https://www.zeetings.com/
  Easy-to-use tool for building slides with embedded polls, videos, and other content. Zeetings presentations can be shared via a simple link so that participants can follow along as the presenter progresses through their slides and easily participate in embedded activities. Includes an automatically created history of each time a given presentation is held, with participant data per-session.