Build Your Course Online - The Blog

Surveys and Polls

Sometimes a quiz is overkill. Sometimes all you need is a quick answer from all the participants in your course about a burning
issue or a logistical question.

Field trip on Tuesday? Or Thursday? Got a
handle on the imperfect subjunctive, or do you want one more lesson before the test? Can you view a video on your computer?

Want the answer right away? Use an online poll. Want a polling option that’s both free and easy to use?

Here are several:

FreePolls.Com
offers a free, easy polling platform.

Perseus Software offers a free, easy one-question poll that’s especially fast and can either be linked to or embedded in a web page.

PollCode.Com’s one-question poll tool is even easier to use and can also be embedded in a Web page. PollCode.Com polls include ads, but for $2.00 per poll, you can make your polls ad free.

A more powerful polling tool, but still free, is available from PollDaddy.Com. For $200.00 a year, PollDaddy.Com offers a “Pro” version that includes “Vote Analysis” (Pro account users can see extra reports for their polls such as individual vote report, voter location, and can also detect and remove fraudulent multiple votes from the same IP.).

Well, that’s it for today.

Claude

Next up: “Solving the Gradebook Dilemma.”

Tests! Gotta love ‘em. They tell you whether your excellent teaching has actually made a dent. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to offer tests, quizzes, drills, surveys, and polls as a part of your course Web site?

You could learn enough Web programming skills to build them yourself, but there are so many good products that do it for you and that are free or cheap, why not use one of them?

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