Overview
This article introduces the "Poll" view, accessible via the Views Tabs section. When selected, it will load the currently-active Poll activity into the main panel. This tab will only appear if a Poll is active. Below is a visual example of the Poll view:
The content displayed in the main panel is divided into two parts: the thin toolbar at the top and the poll content below it. What participants see in each section may vary depending on their role. The following sections explain both areas in detail and highlight elements that are visible only to certain participants.
Toolbar
At the top of the main panel is the toolbar. This bar contains various management tools and poll navigation controls. We'll describe each of these items:
- Lock Poll - This toggle, located toward the left side of the toolbar, is available only to Instructors. When enabled, participants are prevented from further interaction with the poll.
- Share Results - The results chart--normally visible only to Instructors and TAs--can be shown to Learners by toggling this switch on the left side of the bar. Additional details about this chart are covered in the Poll Content section. This toggle is only available to Instructors.
- Save as Template to Content - This is only available to Instructors. As its label suggests, this can be clicked to save the current poll question set for future use.
- Question Navigator - These navigation controls, located at the center of the bar, provide a row of horizontally arranged buttons that participants can use to move through the question set. A button will appear for every question in the set, allowing participants to navigate to a specific question, as well as left and right arrows that can be used to move through questions, one at a time. A Results button also appears at the end, which participants can select to view a summary of the entire question set.
- Split by Results - The Split by Results button is located towards the right side of the bar and is only available to Instructors. This button is only available if the poll contains a single question and the question type is a Single Choice or Multiple Choice. Clicking this will allow you to assign Learners to tables based on their answer to the poll question. Below is a screenshot of the pop-up that appears upon clicking the button:
We'll briefly describe the options seen within this pop-up:- Split By - Select either "Diverse Answers" or "Common Answers". This will distribute Learners to tables with a focus on ensuring diverse answers at each table or will attempt to group common answers among tablemates.
- Learners per Table - Select the number of Learners you'd like at each table.
- Reserved Tables - If you have one or more tables that TAs are seated at and would like to ensure Learners are not distributed to those, set a reservation count here. The tables reserved will be in sequential order, so if you select for 2 tables to be reserved, those would be Table 1 and Table 2.
- Split / Cancel - Select these buttons to either apply the split or to cancel the action.
- Stop Poll - On the right side of the bar is this button, which can be selected to end the Poll activity. This button is only available to Instructors.
- Submit Poll - Available to Learners and TAs, this submits and locks in your poll responses.
Poll Content
The majority of the main panel is devoted to the Poll Content section, which shows the details of the question currently selected by the participant. The exact information displayed varies slightly based on the participant’s role. The next two sections explain these differences.
Staff View
For Staff members, the Poll Content area will display details of the selected question and the results of participant responses as a chart.
If viewing a Single Choice or Multiple choice question, the results will be presented as a pie chart, as shown below:
If viewing a Word Cloud question, the results will be presented as a word cloud, as shown below:
These charts only display answer counts and not user-specific responses. If you are an Instructor, however, you'll notice a toggle at the top-right of these charts that you can use to flip between Chart and List format. Below is an example of the List format, where individual responses are shown:
When viewing the final page of the question set--the Results page--Staff members will see real‑time Chart showing how the class is advancing through the poll. An example of this view is shown below:
Each question is listed along with the percentage of participants who have submitted a response.
A toggle is also available at the top-left of the Results page that staff can use to toggle between Chart and List view. The Results page's List view will show you which participants have submitted their polls.
Below are a few notes for classroom Staff to be aware of as far as the Poll Content area goes:
- Only Instructors can view individual poll question results in List view. TAs are limited to only the Chart view.
- During the Poll activity, Staff members will notice a count appearing at the bottom-right of each Learner's portrait, showing something like "3/5". This value reflects the number of poll questions the Learner has answered out of the total number of questions in the set. Below is an image highlighting this feature:
This count is not visible until the Learner has answered at least one question. - Instructors cannot answer any poll questions.
Learner View
For Learners, the Poll Content area will contain the details of their currently-selected question.
For Single Choice and Multiple Choice questions, they'll be prompted to select from the list of answer options, as exampled in the below image:
For Word Cloud questions, they'll be prompted to type in a response, as shown below:
For Word Cloud responses, be sure to hit the "Submit Answer" button after providing your response.
By default, Learners cannot see the results chart that shows how the class answered each question. This chart becomes visible only if the Instructor enables the "Share Results" toggle.
When viewing the final page of the question set--the Results page--Learners will see a total showing the number of questions they've answered out of the total number of questions in the poll. Below is an example screenshot of this page from the Learner perspective: