Live Polling while presenting in PowerPoint

Often we need to poll the audience during a presentation, lecture or workshop. Usually we manage by asking the audience to raise hands. It is at best approximate. A more accurate method which works in an ad-hoc setting was always elusive. Now, with everyone having a smartphone and internet connection, there is a PowerPoint App which makes polling extremely easy. Read on to find out how you can use it. (5 min)

PowerPoint App: Poll Anywhere

Here are the steps:

1. Open the presentation and go to Insert – Store (Apps).

2. Now search for “poll” and choose Poll Anywhere app

3. Trust it and install it.
4. Now choose the slide where you want to add the poll and choose the app from MyApps in Insert menu. First time, you will have to register and create an ID. Make sure you create a short and easy to remember ID.
5. Various types of polls can be conducted. In this case, I am going to use Multiple Choice poll

6. Now type the poll question and answers.

7. Finally, choose Insert New Poll. You can also reuse the polls.

   You can also choose whether one or more responses are accepted per user. Usually 1 is enough.

8. The poll is automatically activated when that particular slide is activated. It gives two options to your audience to respond to the poll. Either using a web browser and using SMS. I could only use Web Browser option – which is more convenient anyway.
9. Now each participant should go to the displayed browser link and the quiz will appear there automatically.

Results appear live on the presented slide. No manual refresh is required.

If you have multiple polls, the current poll automatically refreshes on the browsers which are open. So participants just have to go to the displayed web page only once and use the updated page to respond to the current poll.

The free version gives 25 user access. For larger number of users, you must pay extra.

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