An Easy Way to do Polling with Your Students

Canvas does have an app available for download, Polls for Canvas, which is a very easy way to create polls in your class. Here is the link for detailed documentation on how to use the app:

http://guides.instructure.com/m/22678/l/237896-what-is-the-polls-for-canvas-app

Using the Polls for Canvas app requires a Canvas account, but it also requires students have a smart phone or tablet, which some students do not have. Here is an easy way to create polling in your course that makes use of the “liking” feature in discussion boards:

1. Begin by creating a discussion board in your course.
2. In the options area of the discussion board, check the box to “Allow liking.”
3. When you check this box, you will see two additional options:
   1. Only Graders Can Like
   2. Sort by Likes
4. To use the discussion as a poll, do NOT click the box for Only Graders Can Like, because then students will not be able to like (or vote) on the options you provide.
5. You may choose to click the box to Sort by Likes, which will let you quickly see which option is leading in the poll.
6. Submit the discussion.
7. Now, go into your discussion and make a separate post for EACH option you want students to be able to vote on in the poll. For example, if the discussion question is “I would like to spend tomorrow’s class time going over which of the following from our assignments:”, then you would make a separate post for each of the following: “word problems”, “linear equations”, “quadratic equations”
8. Students then go to the discussion board and like the post for whichever of the three choices they want to go over during class.