Get honest and anonymous feedback from your students with this free online survey tool

If you want to collect opinions from your students, a real- time online survey can be a very useful tool. With Pollme, you can create customized surveys and easily send them to your students so they can answer even from their phones

Students can be… difficult. Even since before the pandemic, traditional education systems have been going through the challenge of adapting to new technologies and new ways of interaction.

As a teacher, it has become normal to give a lecture while you are not sure if your students are listening to you: they are probably scrolling on their phones, texting, recording your voice or taking photos of what you are writing on the board.

Some say this phone-dependence is a form of addiction, others think the whole classroom experience should adapt to a full tech-oriented perspective.

To us, the middle ground is better: why don't we use modern tools to improve learning?

Pollme can help you with that: our real-time online survey feature may be the perfect resource to engage with those students who can’t keep their hands off their phones.

Here we tell you how:

How can a real-time online survey help you improve your teaching and increase student engagement?

An online survey can provide immediate feedback on how students are interacting with the material and subjects you are teaching about.

This is a great way to evaluate if the students are keeping up with the pace of the class or if they are having difficulty understanding its concepts. If it is anonymous, they can freely ask questions that doesn’t feel comfortable saying out loud.

This feedback will allow you to adjust your resources and make sure all students are getting the most out of the class.

Also, a well written online survey will help you gather feedback on your performance as an educator, so you can better understand the needs and concerns of students at the moment.

An interactive classroom will surely increase their interest and understanding: they’ll feel like they are part of a process you are building with them, and not only listeners in an obligatory educational program.

How to create an online poll with Pollme to collect anonymous feedback from your students

To create an online poll you just have to follow these 3 simple steps:

1.- Go to our poll creator page

You just have to click here and write the title of your poll and a short note for your students. You’ll get something like this:

2.- Write the topic you want to get feedback about

We have a lot of cool templates, but let’s start with a blank project to make it as simple as possible:

You’ll see a template to write a simple question and a multiple choice question. You can delete the second one just by clicking on it and selecting the trash can icon.

After that, you can write the question you want your students to answer. You can even add a title to this card so they can have more context:

Now just hit “Publish”, and there you have it!

3.- Send the poll link to your students

With your question created, you can add some extra settings if you want to. Also remember to put your name and email so you can track the answers. With the “Live View” option you can show the real-time results so everyone can know what everyone's thinking, always maintaining anonymity, of course.

Evaluate your course, exams and performance as a teacher with the help of your students: how to use Pollme online surveys

Asking a simple question is the simplest way of getting some feedback, but: what if you want to dig deeper into your students' minds and hearts?

Pollme can help you with that too. Check this online survey you could create:

As you can see, our platform allows you to integrate different kind of question formats that will let you explore different aspects of your educational program.

Gathering this data will help you to take faster decisions on how to design your classes, the things your students are worried about and the specific questions and thoughts they may not be saying.

It will also give your more introvert students the opportunity to express themselves within the safety of their own limits.

The key to unlock that confidence is to know what questions you should ask. That’s why we prepare a list you may use on your online surveys.

Examples of effective questions you can ask your students in an online survey

Note that these questions should be tailored to the specific class and the context you are running the survey. Some may be useful in the beginning of the semester, while others are better to wrap up the whole experience.

If you need a more detailed experience for your survey, you can check our Pro subscription.

Also, you may want to include open-ended questions to allow students to give more detailed feedback:

• On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate the overall quality of the instruction in this class?
• Were the goals of the course made clear to you at the beginning of the semester?
• How often did you feel engaged in class discussions and activities?
• Were you able to receive prompt and helpful feedback on your work?
• How confident do you feel in your understanding of the course material?
• Were the assignments and assessments aligned with the learning objectives of the course?
• How accessible was the teacher outside of class time?
• Were the course materials (e.g. readings, videos, presentations) useful and relevant to the course?
• Were you given enough opportunities to work on group projects or activities?
• How satisfied are you with the overall experience of this course?

Take it further: survey other teachers, parents, and any member of your institution

With Pollme, evaluating yourself and your teaching is just the beginning.

Online surveys and polls can be used to audit every educational instance you participate in: the teachers board, parents or tutors of the students, colleagues who are also your friends…

Their main strengths and weaknesses, the areas where they could improve, the challenges they’re facing right now, their views on students' problems... The possibilities are endless.

Have any doubt? Go to our Contact page and leave us a message!