1. Home
  2. Remote Instruction
  3. Microsoft Teams
  4. Microsoft Teams – Polls in class meetings
  1. Home
  2. Remote Instruction
  3. Microsoft Teams – Polls in class meetings

Microsoft Teams – Polls in class meetings

Polls can help engage students and give instructors a sense of how students are understanding the materials in “real-time.”

Polls vs. Forms

In Microsoft Teams Meetings, “Forms” and “Polls” are one and the same. However, the “Forms” app has been deprecated. Going forward, if you are given the choice, always choose Polls.

Using polls in class meetings

Polls in channel meetings

Microsoft does not currently provide the same Forms functionality for meetings that were made in a channel as it does for other meetings. If a meeting was made in a channel, you will not be able to prepare polls ahead of time or view the results in Forms online.

Adding polls to a meeting (non-channel meetings)

  1. Open the Calendar tab in Teams and find the meeting. Double-click on it to open the meeting details page. By default, this page lets you edit a single occurrence of the series.  If you would like to edit the entire series instead, click Edit series.
  2. Click on the Add a tab (+) button in the upper menu bar of this window. Add a tab button
    No + symbol appearing?

    If you do not see the + symbol when editing the meeting, this is likely because this meeting was made in a team channel. You will need to follow the steps in the Adding polls to a meeting (channel meetings) section at the bottom of this article.

  3. Select Polls. You may need to Search for it or click See all if it doesn’t appear like this:Polls app button
  4. If you’ve never added the Polls app to a meeting occurrence before, you’ll have to click Add if the following window appears:
    Add button
  5. You’ll be taken back to the Meeting Details page with the Polls tab selected.
    Polls tab
  6. Two ways you can create the polls:
    1. To create polls in advance, click New Poll now.
    2. For on-the-fly polls, with the meeting already in progress, select the Polls tab, and then click New Poll.
      New poll button
  7. Select a type of Poll.
    Poll type options buttons
  8. The next screen depends on the type of engagement you chose in the previous step.
    1. Click the drop-down menu () to the right of that choice to change your mind.
    2. Enter Question details including the available Options.
    3. Toggle on the Multiple answers setting to allow more than one choice for the current question.
    4. Click Add question to add additional questions.
    5. Click the gear icon () to see additional options.
    6. Click Save as Draft to save your changes, or Launch now to make the Poll available to meeting participants immediately.
      Poll options dialog with steps labeled
  9. The poll is a draft until you click “Launch.” You can create several polls as drafts and then launch each one when you are ready for participants to take them either during or prior to the meeting. The poll will appear in a couple of places:
    1. They will see it pop up in the center of their screen where they can answer the questions.
    2. They can also answer it and see the results (if you chose to make them available) in the meeting’s chat window.
  10. OPTIONAL TIP: If your answers are long or contain characters that are hard to build into the poll, it’s possible to present the answers (up to 6 options) on a Powerpoint slide that you can display to the class during the meeting. Then, if you make your poll, enter a simplified question, like a keyword, and list the answer options that students will see simply as “A, B, C…” (or 1-6 if you prefer). Students will be looking at the slide to read the answer options and they can click the corresponding letter in the poll, in the chat window, for their answer. See example of how poll displays in the meeting chat.
  11. You will see the “real-time” results in the chat window of the meeting as the students reply. The students will also see the results in the chat window if you chose this option when you made your poll (step 8-e above).

Need to poll before a meeting?

Polls have the ability to be launched prior to a scheduled Teams meeting time. Follow the steps to create the polls and launch them. Invited meeting participants will receive a chat notification when the polls are launched. They are able to make their selection and submit it in the chat. Meeting organizers can then collect results prior to the meeting time.

View poll results in Forms online (non-channel meetings)

  1. Go to forms.microsoft.com.
  2. If you are not already logged in, click Sign In. Use your UVM email address, then NetID and password to sign in.
  3. You should now see polls you have access to.
    If you do not see the poll you are looking for, click All My Forms in the lower right of the screen.

Follow these directions from Microsoft on how to see responses and download an Excel file.

Adding polls to a meeting (channel meetings)

  1. After the meeting is created, you should see a meeting post in the channel for which the meeting was created. To find the post, click the Teams icon on the left sidebar of Teams, then navigate to the team, then channel within that team.
  2. Click Reply, then the plus symbol (), and then the Polls icon.
    Reply attachment and Polls buttons
  3. Chose your poll options, click Preview, and then Send.

Need more help?

Write to ctl@uvm.edu

Updated on November 11, 2024

Related Articles

Not the solution you were looking for?
Don’t worry we’re here to help!
Submit a Help Ticket