This guide will outline how to create and administer a poll in your live Teams meeting.
Only meeting organizers or presenters can deploy polls. Participants (the default role given to students) cannot create polls. They can only participate in polls launched in any Teams Meeting.
This guide was specifically created to assist faculty using the Microsoft Education integration to host Teams Meetings for Live Class Sessions. While Teams does integrate in Blackboard, it is a Microsoft product. Support for Microsoft is provided by the IT Help Desk at UToledo.
Accessing Polls from the Chat
From inside your Teams meeting, you can access Polls from the Chat.
Once in the chat, navigate to text entry area, then
- Click on the plus sign to expand the app list
- Select Polls from the app list to launch the application
Creating a Polls shortcut in the Teams Meeting action ribbon
You can also enable a shortcut to Polls in your Teams Meeting action bar by
- selecting Apps, then
- selecting Polls
The Polls application will then appear in your action bar.
Once you've launched Polls, you will see the options to
- Create a New Poll, or
- Re-use a previous poll
The lightbulb icon will populate Poll suggestions for quick use!
When you click to create a New Poll, there are 5 options/poll types:
- Multiple Choice
- Quiz
- Word Cloud
- Rating
- Ranking
Quiz polls are Multiple Choice polls, just with a heading denoting it as "Quiz"
Once select a poll type, you can enter the question text and any answer options, such as in this example, the multiple choice poll . Once you've entered your poll question and options, click Launch now to start your poll. You won't be able to edit it after you launch it.
Using the Gear Icon to record names
Note the gear icon at the bottom: Polls default to Names not recorded, Results shared to participants. You can change this setting by clicking that gear icon.
Within the gear icon, you can edit some poll settings. Select or de-select any of the options to:
- Record names of respondents (this is only visible to you and any other presenters, not participants/students).
- Share aggregated results with respondents.
- Allow co-presenters to edit your poll while it's a draft poll. (This would allow anyone else with a presenter designation to edit the poll before it is launched.)
Once you launch your poll, it will update in real time with responses. The poll remains live inside the chat until you close it.
Closing, Deleting, or Downloading Poll Results
To close a poll, you can return to the poll app using the Open app button or by using your Polls shortcut button in the ribbon if you created one.
In the Polls app window, you'll see any polls that are live. Use the drop down associated with the poll to expand the options to:
- Close the poll
- Get Response details
- Export results to excel
- Delete the poll (this cannot be undone or recovered)
Polls are not connected to Blackboard Gradebook; however, if you set a poll to record names and export to excel, you can use that to manually grade and enter in a manual Gradebook column.
You won't be able to adjust poll settings after it is launched. The record names setting would need to be enabled prior to poll launch.
Instant Polls
You also have the option of launching instant polls. These polls can be used for live reactions when you ask a verbal question of the class.
Instant poll options can be found at the bottom of the Polls app window and offer 3 reaction types for your verbal questions:
- Checkmark or X
- Thumbs up or Thumbs down
- Heart or Broken heart
You would not enter question text for an instant poll; you would select the binary reaction type to engage participation during your lecture/talk. For example, you might ask the following questions out loud and use these instant poll response types:
How many of you have used Teams Meetings before? (thumbs up/down or check/X)
Who is excited to be back to school? (Heart/Broken heart)
The Lightbulb of Poll Ideas
In the Polls app, if you select the lightbulb icon, it will turn purple and populate some poll suggestions you can use.
When you choose one of these, you do have the option to edit the questions and/or response options before launching.
The suggested polls can be great icebreakers or checks to see who is paying attention!
Support for Microsoft 365, including Teams, is provided through IT. More information about use and support of Teams can be found at https://www.utoledo.edu/it/office365/teams/.