PollEverywhere: A Digital Student Response System

Overview

A student response system is a method for collecting instant information from a group of students. They can be used for conducting a quick poll (Please rate your confidence with this skill), hosting a fun, quiz-style competition to prepare for an exam, crowd-sourcing group decisions (Shall we use class time to review difficult concepts or work on our group projects?) and simply energizing your class with a fun ice-breaker. 

Williams has a limited number of licenses available for piloting Poll Everywhere, a digital student response system. Instructors may create their questions, including surveys, polls, word clouds, among many others, and students can use their mobile device or laptop to respond. PollEverywhere questions may be integrated with GLOW and inserted into Google Slides or PowerPoint slideshows. 

This article covers how to request a license, discusses the difference between a Williams' Educator+ license or a self-service free license, and explores some ideas for applying it to your class. 

Eligibility

All faculty are eligible for a one-year PollEverywhere license, subject to availability. Please complete our PollEverywhere Educator+ License Request form.

Poll respondents may participate without creating an account.

Additional Information

What is the difference between the free and the paid Educator+ account? 

We support two versions: a robust free version and Educator+ version that is more suitable for large classes or those looking for advanced features. We’ll work with you to learn and test either of these options.

Below is a list of the most relevant differences between the different plans. For a comprehensive feature comparison between the Free and Educator+ licenses, please consult PollEverywhere’s feature comparison for Education plans.

How do I sign up?

Is a free account right for you? Head to polleverywhere.com and sign up for a new account. Be sure to use your @williams.edu account.  Are you interested in an Educator+ license for your large class or advanced features? Please complete our interest form!

Responses submitted before August 30, 2025 will receive priority for the Fall semester.

Licenses will be distributed on first-come, first serve basis. However, if the number of interested faculty exceeds what's available, priority will be given to those with stated need of advanced features, extent of use (e.g., majority of classes across the entire academic year), and/or class size (e.g., large).

Tell me more about how PollEverywhere can support engagement in my class.

• Collecting just-in-time feedback to assess student comprehension during a lecture. This may be particularly useful for large introductory courses, where there may be a large range of comfort with the material. It can be tricky to assess whether your class is “following” a complicated topic based on body language alone. A quick confidence poll or review question may allow you to better understand the comprehension across your entire class – not just those who feel psychologically safe enough to provide a potentially incorrect answer. 
• Energizing the class and build community with icebreaker questions. Particularly in stressful times of the semester, students can benefit a quick energizer before class – whether related to the material or not! You might ask for music suggestions to play while students enter the classroom, ask them to share how they’re feeling using a silly assortment of emojis, or ask them to share a “win” related to their learning for a quick boost of positivity. Short moments where students share a bit of their experiences can go a long way in building a classroom community with an atmosphere of trust. 
• Providing low-stakes assessment through fun competitions. Ungraded quizzes or competitions can serve to inject some energizing fun into your class and provide you with valuable data on students’ mastery of a given objective. It’s a win-win! 
• Collecting attendance for large classes. Taking attendance may provide slightly more motivation for students to attend class. You may pair your “attendance question” with an entry or exit ticket – a meta0cognitive prompt that primes the student for learning, such as setting an intention or asking them to share where they’re getting stuck. 

Does PollEverywhere integrate with GLOW?

The Educator+ licenses may be integrated with the GLOW Grade book. If you are interested in using the integration, please reach out to your Academic Technology Consultant. 

I’m in. Where can I find more information or training? 

Your Academic Technology Consultant can support you in integrating PollEverywhere in your classroom. 

I love classroom polling, but I prefer to use [your favorite tool]. Can I use this one instead?

There are plenty of great polling tools on the market. Other industry leaders include Kahoot!, Mentimeter, and Wooclap. Most of these platforms have free accounts that you can create and use on your own. However, please note that Academic Technology Services may only provide full support (e.g., access help, training, and troubleshooting) for your integration with PollEverywhere.  

If you are planning on using a polling system to collect FERPA-protected data (e.g., student assessments), we highly recommend that you reach out to your Academic Technology Consultant, who can assist you with determining that your preferred tool meets security and privacy standards. Read more about our software acquisition process here. 

While you’re here – another tool we strongly support using as a student response system is a simple Google Form. Like PollEverywhere, you can use a Google Form to ask a variety of questions of students and to collect instantaneous responses. If you are most interested in surveys and exit tickets, using Google Forms may be a better tool for your goals. 

What about physical clickers? 

Clickers, handheld digital devices that use radio waves to transmit and aggregate input from an audience, were a popular classroom engagement technology starting from the mid-2000’s. In fact, clickers were the first “student response system” we used at Williams to capture just-in-time feedback for large classes!

Academic Technology Services no longer manages physical clickers from classroom use at Williams. This technology has been largely supplanted by mobile devices, which now allow for a much broader range of input, such as text and image selection, and are more sustainable to maintain. Additionally, the software used by physical iClickers is no longer reliably supported.

While we in Academic Technology Services generally support the mindful integration of mobile technologies into the learning experience at Williams, we recognize that many faculty and educators prefer to restrict students’ use of mobile devices and laptops. If this describes your classroom policies, please reach out to your Academic Technology Consultant us about Plickers as an alternative student response system (note: the instructor will still need to use a phone to collect student responses) or other creative solutions to fit your needs.