Classroom voting ("clickers")

Classroom voting is a way to collect and aggregate a student responses to a question. The responses can be used to encourage further discussion and/or to guide the next step in a lecture.

Question libraries

See this page for question libraies sorted by course

How to use classroom voting productively

• PDF: Science Education Initiative: An instructors guide to the effective use of clickers in teaching

• PDF: Tips for successful clicker use

• PDF: Classroom questioning and voting summary

• Web: Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching: Guide to classroom response systems

• Videos: Science education intiative: How to use clickers effectively (short videos, including in upper-division courses)

• Videos: Science education initiative: Faculty workshops (longer videos that go in depth on using clickers effectively and writing good questions)

• Video: Eric Mazur: Example of a peer instruction routine

Free classroom voting systems

• Peardeck (add on for Google slides that allows for a veriety of repsonse methods, including mulitple choice, text entry, and drawing)

• Plickers (completely free and low-tech. Students hold up cards, teacher scans the room with a cell phone to collect votes. Up too 100 votes at a time)

• Kahoot! (Lots of question types and response types. Students respond via cell phone or internet device)

• Poll everywhere (students respond via cell phone or internet device—app, web, or text. Free plan is limited to 25 responses per poll)

• Webclicker.org (free, web-based. Students respond via Internet device)

• Slido (students respond using a phone or browser. Free plan is limited to 100 partiicpants and 3 polls per event)

• Socrative (web- or app-based. Up to 50 responses per poll for the free version)

• "Analog" clickers: colored paper

• Remote engagement: For online courses conducted via synchronous video, many platforms include an option to poll participants:

  • Using a poll in Zoom

  • Using a polll in WebEx

  • Using a poll in Skype for Business

  • You can also use Google Forms to create and share polls online

Websites and other resources

Project MathQUEST at Carroll Collge. An NSF-funded project with multiple resources and question libraries.

Science Education Initiative: Car Weiman's multiple-year initiative, initiatially funded through his Nobel Prize award funds.

Agile Learning: Clickers. Derek Bruff's site, with a collection of blog posts related to clicker use

Book: Teaching mathematics with classroom voting: With and without clickers (MAA)

Book:Teaching with classroom response systems: Creating active learning environments