Polls & Surveys

Find tools to get feedback from students in online polls and surveys at UBC. All tools recommended by the LT Hub receive central technical and pedagogical support.

Synchronous Feedback

Asking students questions during a live session like a lecture can be done with a built-in feature of Zoom or with a dedicated student response system like iClicker Cloud.

General Tips

  • Use polls regularly during synchronous online sessions to increase student interaction and engagement.
  • Including pre- and post-activity polls can help you gauge students’ understanding of course topics before and after learning activities.
  • Analyze poll reports after class sessions to diagnose where students are encountering challenges with the subject matter and could use more guidance in the next session.

iClicker Cloud Logo iClicker Cloud

 

Cost:
Free

Bandwidth:
Low demand

Privacy:
Verified by UBC’s Privacy Impact Assessment process.

iClicker Cloud

Collect and optionally grade responses to in-class questions that students answer using the iClicker Cloud web interface on their computer or mobile device.

What are the benefits?

  • You can check student knowledge and opinions in real time through polls (single questions) and quizzes (sets of multiple questions), conducted anonymously or for marks.
  • You receive the responses instantly, and you can use these results to inform your teaching and/or share them with the class.
  • iClicker Cloud poll and quiz results can automatically count toward student grades in Canvas, if you set up syncing.

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Zoom logo

Cost:
Free

Bandwidth:
High demand

Privacy:
Verified by UBC’s Privacy Impact Assessment process. However, you should advise students not to sign in to free Zoom accounts.

Zoom Polling

Conduct polls during real-time online lectures, presentations, or meetings with Zoom’s built-in feature.

What are the benefits?

  • You can create multiple-choice questions (where you can have students pick one or multiple answers) ahead of time. You can also create these polls on-the-fly during a session.
  • Polling outcomes are available anonymously after the session, so you can get a sense of overall responses (although you can’t track individual student participation).

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Asynchronous Feedback

Get in-depth feedback by running a survey for students to take at a time of their choosing.

General Tips

  • Use a survey tool to gather mid-course feedback to formatively shape the remainder of the time.
  • In research-focused courses, give students the opportunity to design and distribute their own surveys.

Qualtrics logo

 

Cost:
Free

Bandwidth:
Low demand

Privacy:
Verified by UBC’s Privacy Impact Assessment process.

Qualtrics

Collect feedback and other survey data with UBC’s main survey tool.

What are the benefits?

  • You can choose from 28 question types in building surveys, as well as add advanced branching and other survey workflow customization.
  •  You can collaborate on surveys with other UBC users and/or privately share outcomes with individuals using the built-in automated reporting, visualizations, and analytics.
  • The Survey IQ feature allows you to assess your survey’s accessibility and design before you send it out.

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