Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere is an online service that allows teachers to ask their students a question. The students answer the question using their mobile phones, Twitter, or web browsers. Both the question and the students' responses are displayed live in Keynote, PowerPoint and/or on the web.

Available to: Faculty | Students | Trainees | Staff
Managed by: Education Technology
Funding: Institution
Authentication: SSO with MFA (token)

Updates

What is Poll Everywhere?
Poll Everywhere is a student response system (or polling application) licensed by Ed-Tech at Baylor College of Medicine. The application works well for live audiences using mobile devices like phones, tablets, and laptops. Students participate by visiting a mobile-friendly web page or using the Poll Everywhere app (Apple iTunes or Google Play) for your poll event, sending text messages, or using Twitter. Instructions are displayed on-screen. You can engage your students with real-time interactive questions. 

How do I create a poll using Poll Everywhere?
Faculty can use the Poll Everywhere website to create and customize their own in-class polls, present them in class as interactive presentation elements, and allow your students to respond via web access or text message. Faculty can also download an add-on for Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, or Google Slides to create and customize polling questions. Presenters, teachers, and professors use Poll Everywhere to engage classrooms and gather audience insights in real time. Q&A and multiple choice polls can be presented directly from the web, or they can be embedded directly into a PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, or Google Slides presentation.

PowerPoint, Google Slides and Apple Keynote
View how to install Poll Everywhere into different presentation applications.

How do I use Poll Everywhere as a Presenter?
Faculty, teachers and presenters (TAs/Students) can create and display questions on the fly, including Q&A and multiple choice polls. Questions can be presented directly from the web or embedded in a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation. Audience responses are displayed in real-time. Great for classroom participation, or gathering opinions from the audience.

What are common uses for Poll Everywhere?
Presenters, teachers, and professors use Poll Everywhere to engage classrooms and gather audience insights in real time. Q&A and multiple choice polls can be presented directly from the web, or they can be embedded directly into a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation. Faculty and students can use it to:

  • Respond to polls: Audience members can respond to the presenter's questions in real time.
  • Poll an audience: Presenters can ask spontaneous on-the-fly questions and display poll responses live using the web or Poll Everywhere desktop apps.
  • Advance PowerPoint slides: Presenters can control the flow of PowerPoint presentations using a smartphone as a wireless remote.

What are the key features of Poll Everywhere?

  • Create or answer multiple choice, true/false, open-ended, ranking poll, and clickable image questions.
  • Fast, seamless operation: when one poll ends, the next is shown automatically.
  • Moderate and approve responses to open-ended questions.
  • Watch results update live.
  • Use easy participant registration to give and receive credit for attendance and participation.
  • View participant response history and correctness.
  • Advance slides in a Windows PowerPoint presentation with the included Presenter Remote feature.

What are the Accessibility Standards?

  • Poll Everywhere believes in equal learning opportunities for all, and our approach to accessibility reflects that belief.
  • For a full breakdown of our accessibility standards, please refer to their Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) at the end of the Accessibility Standards page.

To get a Poll Everywhere teaching account, submit an Education Technology Request Form. Access usually takes 12 hours. Once your Poll Everywhere teaching account is created you will be able to go to Polleverywhere.com to register your account and begin using the application. See steps to log into Poll Everywhere.

To get a Poll Everywhere account, do the following:

  1. Submit an Education Technology Request Form to request an account.
  2. When you receive the emailed invitation, click on the link and register your PollEverywhere account
  3. Attend a Poll Everywhere workshop offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning. View the CTL calendar for available dates and times.
    • Depending on the time needed, a 1-1 consultation can be scheduled within reason.
    • Send an email to the CTL Team to schedule a consultation: teaching-elearning@bcm.edu.
  4. Use PollEverywhere in your favorite presentation software (PowerPoint, Keynote, Slides)
  5. Contact the Ed-Tech by email at (ed-tech@bcm.edu) if assistance is needed.

As of Jan 1, 2025 Poll Everywhere will use Single Sign-on (SSO).  Users will use their BCM username and password for access.

NOTE: Off-campus users (those not connected to BCM Wifi or on VPN) will need to use an MFA token to authenticate until February 2025.  

Contact the BCM Help Desk for login issues
Support Line: 713-798-8737
Web: https://it.bcm.edu

NOTE: If you have forgotten your password, contact the BCM Helpdesk at 713-798-8737 or visit https://password.bcm.edu.

Spark exciting conversations directly from your PowerPoint slide deck. Create a Multiple choice activity directly in Microsoft Teams. Use it whenever you need to collect feedback in a hurry: to prioritize agenda items, assign tasks during a meeting, or vote on a favorite movie.

Poll Everywhere for PowerPoint

Poll Everywhere for Teams

  • Engage teammates: Create a Multiple choice activity directly in Microsoft Teams. Use it whenever you need to collect feedback in a hurry: to prioritize agenda items, assign tasks during a meeting, or vote on a favorite movie.
  • Spark conversations: Because participants respond directly in Teams too, there’s no need to leave the thread to align with your teammates and spark interesting discussions.
  • Gain insights: Asking an interactive question in Teams doesn’t limit your ability to dig deeper. View detailed response history, run reports, or edit an activity’s settings by opening it in your Poll Everywhere account.

The Poll Everywhere app can be added to Teams meetings to allow attendees to respond to polls without having to open a separate browser window. There are some restrictions to the types of meeting the app can be added to.

  • You cannot add the Poll Everywhere app to meetings that have a channel associated with them.
  • You can add the app to meetings created in the Teams or Outlook calendar with individuals or groups of individuals invited, or via the Meet Now option in chats.
  • The app can be added by anyone who has organizer, co-organizer or presenter permission in the meeting.
  • The Poll Everywhere app works best within the Teams app rather than in a browser.
  1. Start with the Poll Everywhere Getting Started for MS Teams
  2. Select the + icon at the top of the screen (to the right of the tabs)
  3. Search for Poll Everywhere, or select Poll Everywhere if it is already available.
  4. Sign into Poll Everywhere using your e-mail and Poll Everywhere password.
  5. Poll Everywhere will open a browser window. In the browser window, select Authorize and close the window.
  6. In Teams, select Save.
  7. When you start the meeting, the Poll Everywhere icon will be available on menu bar.

You can present your polls and participants can respond within Microsoft Teams meetings via the Poll Everywhere app. The app works best within the Teams app rather than Teams in a browser.

Activate the Poll Everywhere app in a Teams meeting

  1. Select Poll Everywhere from the menu at the top of the screen.
  2. If you haven't added the app in advance, log into your Poll Everywhere account to authorize the app.
  3. If you are running your poll from the website, activate the polls. Put your polls into Present mode and share your browser window.
  4. If you have embedded your poll in PowerPoint, share the presentation. Go into slideshow mode to trigger the polls to activate as usual.
  5. If you only have one screen, use PowerPoint and select Set Up Slideshow > Browsed by an individual (window). Share the PowerPoint window rather than the file. Resize the presentation window from full screen to part of the screen to be able to view the Teams meeting and presentation

*You can add Poll Everywhere to chats or channels but please be aware that the app will display any polls that are subsequently run in other meetings, chats or channels. If you do add the app to a chat or channel, you can remove it once it is no longer being used

If you don't want to use Poll Everywhere, you can create polls in the Teams meeting chat using the Teams Polls function.

 If you plan to use PollEverywhere with Apple Keynote:

Important: When you use a different device (e.g. the computer in your lecture hall):

  • Make sure the App is downloaded to its PowerPoint software
  • If you login into PowerPoint (also log into your PollEv account through PowerPoint) Do not forget to log out of PowerPoint when done.

If you plan to use PollEverywhere with Google Slides:

Use the test panel to preview how your activity will appear to those responding on a mobile or via text.

Or activate your poll, and respond via pollev.com/YOURURL to preview the experience for respondents and to rehearse how you activate the poll when presenting. Remember to clear any responses before presenting it in class.

Poll Everywhere is a web-based audience response system lets speakers embed interactive activities directly into a presentation. This enables the audience to respond on the web or via SMS texting on their phones.

Getting Started

Creating Activities

Poll Ev Teams (submit an Ed-Tech request to get a Team created)

Presenting Your Polls

Reports

Videos

Visit the Center for Teaching and eLearning.

  • Poll Everywhere Workshop - (video) - Beginner level
  • Presenter Training - (video) - (1hr 10 mins) a “Getting Started” style training to overview usage from start to finish, including a mock “lecture” for demonstrating how we might be used in a classroom, to presenting from the web and from a Powerpoint, as well as reporting.
  • Asynchronous Use Cases - (video) - (10 mins) How to use Poll Everywhere asynchronously.

We've got your back
Submit an Ed-Tech Form for a service request or resolve a a technical issue. Login using your BCM username and password for access and select Poll Everywhere. For questions, contact Ed-Tech 

For Wifi issues, send an email to: wi-fiissues@bcm.edu.

(NOTE: If you have forgotten your password, please contact the BCM Helpdesk at 713-798-8737 or visit https://bcm.edu/myaccount) PDF: Microsoft Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR)

How do I get Poll Everywhere support during my lecture?

If you are presenting a lecture at Main Baylor and need assistance/support with Poll Everywhere:

  • Contact the Center for Teaching and eLearning at teaching-elearning@bcm.edu for education content delivery and instructional design relating to Poll Everywhere.
  • If you need immediate technical assistance, contact the AV Team at 713-798-1772 or by email at av@bcm.edu. The AV Team can provide minimal support but can not answer questions about the Poll Everywhere software.

How do I contact support for Poll Everywhere?

Known Issues

If you continue to have trouble please gather your logs and contact Poll Everywhere Support.

Issue: The Poll Everywhere PowerPoint add-in is incompatible with PowerPoint’s Read-Only and Protected views, but when you download a PowerPoint to the instructor station in the classroom, it will automatically open in Protected view (a Windows security feature).  In our testing, we discovered that this conflict might cause error messages that cause PowerPoint to freeze.

Solution: A workaround would be to download the PowerPoint, right-click on the file, go to the file properties and check the box to “unblock” the file under the security settings. You would then be able to open and run the PowerPoint. 

Issue: Most of time, Poll Everywhere works well in Presenter View in Windows & MacOS PowerPoint. However, this support varies in different contexts. Please read through the troubleshooting guide below to help resolve Presenter View issues.

General known issues

  • Poll Everywhere activities can not be controlled from Presenter View.
  • Non-active Poll Everywhere slides appear blank.
  • Poll Everywhere activities do not refresh on Presenter View.

  • In PowerPoint, click the Slide Show tab and uncheck the "Use Presenter View" option.
  • Use regular Slide Show mode to present your content and Poll Everywhere activities.

Display issues during MacOS Presenter View
If you are having trouble displaying your activities, or if your activities are displaying on the wrong screen while using the Poll Everywhere for MacOS presentation application, you might be able to solve the problem using the Force Monitor Selection command.

Issue:  On a Windows computer and presenting through PowerPoint, users have experienced and issue with polls not activating (as they should) while in Presentation Mode.

Solution:

  1. Download the PE Validator application here.
  2. Use it to clean your computer of all Poll Everywhere files
  3. Navigate to this page here and download version 3.0.9
  4. Install Poll Everywhere again
  5. Restart your computer
  6. Restart Powerpoint
  7. Go to Poll Everywhere tab in the Ribbon.
  8. Select "Settings" button in the menu. A drop down will appear. Click 'About'.
  9. Uncheck 'Auto-updates enabled.'
    1. For more information about Update PowerPoint Addin

Resolution: Poll Everywhere Windows Presenter has a new version (4.1.0) available for download, which should resolve the current issues. You can download the new version.

Full release notes will be available shortly.

I’ve been doing some testing of PEV in the classroom today. Previously during LGI sessions faculty have had issues getting different PEV activities to display at the proper resolution, especially word clouds not updating or free responses as well.

A possible solution that seems to work in the classroom is setting the scaling of the monitor where the presentation is being displayed to exactly 100% using the display settings. (In the LGIs, this would be the large projector display where the PowerPoint is shown). This should allow the activities to work if the scaling is set to 100, but may make viewing web browsers on that monitor smaller and require zooming in. Just wanted to propose a possible solution that may be worth testing in the auditoriums! PEV has an older article for older windows versions here, but it appears to work the same for current windows 

View more information on Activities spilling off the presentation screen.