People get more out of presentations they are actively engaged with, but the larger the audience, the more cumbersome it is to get them all to respond. If they need to purchase special devices to participate, it becomes even more of a challenge. The video below will give you an overview of tools for gathering responses that work with a broad range of devices: Poll Everywhere, Plickers, Kahoot, and Pear Deck. With these tools, you can quickly get a wide range of feedback on your presentation, share the results with your audience in real time, and record the responses for your future reference.

Links to the tools featured with some details about each: 

Poll Everywhere

  • Uses mobile devices or laptops rather than clickers
  • "Freemium software"
    • Free base software supports 40 audience members in higher education)
    • Paid premium software allows you to do quizzes with grades and store poll responses
  • Display aggregated answers as graphs and word clouds

Plickers

  • Doesn't require mobile devices (aside from the person doing the polling)
  • Uses a free PDF of printable cards with QR-style images that you hand out to your audience
  • "Freemium software"
    • Premium account provides advanced gradebook features and laminated copies of codes
  • System allows you to assign one card to one student and track responses over time
  • Allows for real-time responses for up to 40 users
  • Limited to multiple choice questions

Kahoot

  • Gamified quizzing app
  • Multiple choice questions
  • More points for answering more quickly
  • Displays usernames of participants
  • No integrated gradebook
  • Works best with a computer hooked up to an overhead projector--does not work well online with screen sharing 

Pear Deck

  • Integrated plugin works with Google Docs or Slides
  • Audience responds through mobile devices or laptops
  • Questions can be text, multiple choice, or numbers
  • Audience can view anonymized responses or aggregated answers
  • Can save responses on Google Drive for future reference
  • Pay a monthly fee to use other question types (e.g. interacting with images)

Choosing and Using Audience Response Systems Video