Survey your course participants by capturing their responses to questions with specified options by using the Poll element.
Polling or surveying is an active learning technique which helps engage learners by encouraging them to think about and respond to course content. These contributions allow you to assess opinions, knowledge, and skills, capture relevant data or confirm acceptance.
By including polls in your courses, you can:
Enable explorers to participate in social learning by displaying how their contributions compare to others via aggregated responses.
Capture perspectives on certain concepts or ideas.
Solicit feedback from course participants.
Assess explorer knowledge, skills or understanding either before or after reviewing relevant course material.
Expand the following sections to learn more.
Steps to add a poll to a course
Steps to add a poll to a course
Add the element to your topic or article by selecting the 'Poll' option from the Content box, then follow these steps:
Optionally provide a label for your poll. The label is hidden to explorers and is used for reporting purposes. It also helps you differentiate between multiple polls within the same topic or article.
Select a layout option.
Specify your question and provide up to ten possible responses. Alternatively, you can select a template for your poll question and update the template question and responses, as required.
Optionally include an image with your poll, and provide feedback to be displayed once an explorer has voted. Please note, only images added to your poll using our image uploader support 'click-to-zoom' functionality. Images inserted directly into text do not zoom when clicked by learners.
Manage your poll settings, as preferred, and click Save.
Video demonstration
Video demonstration
In the following video, we show you how to add the Poll element to a topic or article. Please note, certain aspects of the UI (including several layout options) may have changed since this video was recorded.
Settings and options
Settings and options
Option - Layouts
When creating a poll, you can select one of several layout options including: one to two columns, a dropdown, two to five buttons, or ten buttons. The responses you set for explorers to choose from are displayed according to the selected layout.
Columns - one or two columns of checkboxes
Dropdown - a dropdown menu of up to ten options to select from
Note: Explorers can only select one option when the dropdown layout is in use.
Buttons - two, three, four, five or ten buttons
Note: Buttons work best with very short choices (1-3 words per choice).
Option - Templates
Optionally, you can use a poll template to pre-populate your poll using common types of questions and answers. These include Never-Always, Disagree-Agree, 1-10, Not important-important, Yes-No, or Accept.
After selecting a template, edit the question and answers, as needed. For example, if you select the 'Disagree-Agree' template, you'll need to complete the question "How do you feel...".
Option - Poll settings
Poll settings allow you to specify if explorers can only select one response from the choices provided, choose to show aggregated responses from all explorers once a poll selection is made, and copy the explorer's poll response to their journal.
The available settings are:
Explorers can only select one choice - By default, unless a template is used, polls allow explorers to select multiple answers (this option is switched off). To restrict explorers to select just one answer for your poll, ensure this setting is ticked.
Show explorers' aggregated poll results after they vote - By default, aggregated poll results are displayed to explorers after voting, providing visibility of how others have responded to the same question. We recommend switching this setting off when using a poll to capture sensitive survey responses.
Copy the explorer's choices to explorer's journal - By default, this setting is switched off. When selected, a copy of the poll question and the explorer's selected response is copied into their journal. This is a fantastic tool for polls about next steps or areas for improvement, as it quickly captures the explorer's thoughts for use in activities or 1:1 discussions with relevant stakeholders.
Set this poll as optional (Explorers can progress without completing). - By default, polls are mandatory for learners to complete before they progress to the next section (or complete the topic or article). Switching this option on allows learners to skip the poll.
Option - Polls with images
You can include an image by selecting 'Display an image with your poll' when creating your poll and following the prompts to either upload an image or import an image from our library.
The image is then displayed between your poll question and the available choices.
Images can be edited, as required, using our Image Editor. When clicked by a learner, images zoom to show a larger version of the image. Please note, this does not apply to images inserted directly into text.
Option - Feedback
Include feedback for polls in cases where you want to give a specific response to explorers after voting, for example, details of common or expected selections, or appreciation and reasoning behind the poll.
Reporting and analytics
Reporting and analytics
All responses are available in the reporting for the relevant topic or article, and when using the Answers report in Analytics.
Examples
Examples
The following are examples of different ways polls can be used in a course.
Example - Engaging learners at the start of a topic or article
You can use the Poll element at the start of a point to get your explorers engaged and thinking about your knowledge, before they actually start.
Example - Capturing feedback
The Poll element is a great way to capture explorer feedback - possibly at the end of a topic or article.
Note: Be conscious about the decision to keep the 'aggregated poll results' setting on. Depending on the type of information or feedback you're capturing, you may want to turn this setting off.
Example - Receiving acceptance for policies or procedures
You can use the Poll element to have your explorers accept a policy.
Example - Re-engaging learners throughout your topic or article
You can use polls throughout a part to re-engage explorers. For example, after large bodies of text.
Tips for using polls
Tips for using polls
Polls are a great way for explorers to reflect. It might be on what they have previously done or how they currently feel about something. Polls can also be a terrific way for explorers to compare their results or feelings with others, when the aggregated results option is switched on.
From a learning perspective, reflection or comparison are the main uses for a poll. However, you can also use a poll for data or reporting by collecting workplace feedback or thoughts on a topic, as part of the process of learning.