Feature Question: What are needs for Polls?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bruce Nelson on December 10, 2008 at 7:01pm

1. Should Polls be gradable? (This would be all or nothing...the student takes the poll or they don't.)
It should be an option... even if it is just a participation grade. I could see using polls as a creative way to take attendance.

2. Should Students be able to see past polls on a Polls listing page under the Connect Tab?
Yes, I think having access to past polls shows student s how much they have learned.

3. Do we need to track who voted for what?
Again, as a creative way to take attendance, or to see who has what opinions. The eInstruction system I have allows for tracking of individual students.

4. Do we need to provide a means to Export Results? Yes, either into an alternative gradebook. or spreadsheet. Let the students do some data mining.

5. Do we need a way to Print Results? Again, I want everything :) printing results is needed for data purposes, and for those teachers who might need hard copies or are stuck in the analog way of doing things.

6. Any other suggestions? What did we miss?
As stated before, pie or graphs are needed... any way to show the data visually with students understanding the data.

ook!

Permalink Reply by Marcos Wright Kuhns on December 11, 2008 at 5:23am

Wow, thanks for the quick response, Bruce! I want to propose a question 3.5 just to add a little more clarity.

3. Do we need to know which students have voted on a poll?
Yes, we are planning on tracking which students have voted in order to facilitate grading.

3.5. Do you need to know which option each student voted for? (e.g. Sally and Daniel voted for option A)
I'm guessing that you're suggesting yes, Bruce, when you said "to see who has what opinion." As we were talking this option over in our meeting yesterday, this feature sounded more like the job of a survey tool, but seeing as we don't have one of those yet, is the feature still desirable in the poll tool?

Permalink Reply by Bruce Nelson on December 11, 2008 at 7:12am

I think if you were to add a survey tool that could deal with my request. It would also help define some difference between the tools. Poll - anonymous single question, Survey - multiple questions, trackable.

Though I know many classes that have the kids move a marker (in my class they are little cars) from one spot, to another to answer a simple question (Will it rain today? Who would win in a fight Superman or Batman?) those who didn't answer aren't here.

Permalink Reply by Bryan Falcon on December 11, 2008 at 7:19am

Hmmm....this begs the question...would it be helpful to have this integrated with the Attendance book? You don't answer the question, you don't get an 'Present' entry in the attendance book?

Permalink Reply by Bruce Nelson on December 11, 2008 at 7:23am

I like the way you are thinking.

Permalink Reply by Kathi on December 11, 2008 at 6:54am

1. Should Polls be gradable? (This would be all or nothing...the student takes the poll or they don't.)
This would be a great options. Some teachers would definately like this feature.

2. Should Students be able to see past polls on a Polls listing page under the Connect Tab?
I could see some teachers using polls that "build" on one another so this would be a great option. Should be a feature teachers could turn on or off.

3. Do we need to track who voted for what?
Yes, but again, should be a feature that could be turned on or off, depending on the nature of the poll.

4. Do we need to provide a means to Export Results?
Yes. Excel.

5. Do we need a way to Print Results?
Yes.

6. Any other suggestions? What did we miss?
Be sure that the teacher has the option of allowing students to see results immediately for immediate feed-back, or holding off until the teacher "turns on" results for the group. Would be cool if that could be automated. Like if there were buttons to click, "Show Poll Results on ." or "Show Poll Results Immediately."
If teacher can get the results into Excel, s/he can do the charts and graphs, but I agree w/Bruce, it would be cool to be able to create them quickly w/out having to go through that extra step, if that's doable.

Permalink Reply by Bryan Falcon on December 11, 2008 at 6:58am

This extra suggestion about 'Show Poll Results on/immediately' is fantastic, Kathi. Thanks!

Permalink Reply by Bruce Nelson on December 11, 2008 at 7:22am

I like the option of showing or not showing poll results. That way you don't have kids bowing to peer pressure. How many times do teachers ask a simple show of hands question and everyone waits to see who puts their hand up before answering?

Permalink Reply by Bryan Falcon on February 9, 2009 at 1:43pm

We've had Polls out there for a little over a week now, and I would be curious to hear any responses you have about the new tool. Enhancement ideas? Do you like what you see? As always thanks in advance for your input, friends!

Permalink Reply by Bruce Nelson on February 10, 2009 at 1:12pm

I would love to see a teacher be able to turn on or off a poll (like an assessment) Being able to have a poll available for lets say the first 10 minutes of class and then turn off makes it a possible easy way to take attendance. I tried to do that as I was setting up for class right before the snow hit two weeks ago and decided to cancel class instead- Just kidding, but decided that I would probably have to create a poll on the fly instead of having one waiting in the background. Then again it could be user error (I do that a lot)