Interaction through mobile phone polling during synchronous

teaching sessions

Helen Wozniak: FlindersNT, School of Medicine

Cyndie McCarley: Flinders, School of Medicine/School of

Education

Context: Flinders Northern Territory Medical Program (NTMP)

• Year 1-2 Pre-clinical years at Charles Darwin University campus since 2011 – Local teaching- small group PBL, anatomy

clinical skills– Video-conference lectures from Adelaide

• Year 3-4 clinical years 5 sites across NT since 1998– Clinical teaching at all 5 sites, small groups– Video conference sessions across all NT sites

• Approx 120 students (25-30 per year)• Indigenous entry stream (total 16 students

currently)

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Why use polling?aka Audience Response System

• Power of technology to create a bridge between people separated by time and place

• Untapped potential of mobile/ tablet devices• Student expectations of interaction (already

using Facebook messaging back channel which academic staff cannot access)

(Horizon Report: Johnson et al 2012, 2013)

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Are all audience response systems the same?

• NO• We needed

– Web or mobile phone polling– Ability to link students separated by

distance from each other and lecturers– No special software requirements

• ANSWER

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How do you set it up?

• Web interface to create questions

• Question Types: MCQ or free text

• Can insert poll embedded in ppt slide and run poll via powerpoint or from a unique simple web url

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How do students vote?• Students vote via web address (free) or sending text code

(txt charge) to mobile number (twitter also an option)

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How do you see results?

• Several options– Real time within ppt presentation (you can

see the votes come in or choose to wait until everyone has voted then show results)

– Via webpage– After session: download results table as excel

spreadsheet

Next some examples

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Example 1• Year 1 Video conference lecture

Intro to e-learning for medical course held in Darwin

• Darwin students and Adelaide students (3 votes each)

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Example 2• Year 1 local session- intro to group work• Start of session - Opinion about PBL (MCQ style)• End of session – Student opinions gathered about

group learning via free text responses• Page allows you to scroll down through responses

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Example 3• Year 3 session at 4 different sites (1,500km

apart) responding to question at same time• Enabled tutors in each site to determine

student progress with assessment and tailor session to student needs

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Neat features

• You can change the poll on the fly and the updates appear immediately in your powerpoint

• Subscription provides you with a unique and easy url to use for voting

• Works well on mobile devices• Accepts free text comments (not limited

to MCQ’s)

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Drawbacks

• License cost if you want > 40 students to vote or >1 presenter on the account

• Limited ability to customise look and feel- more options from Sept 2013

• Bringing in a new interface Sept 2013 which will require MSPowerpoint plug in (may be drawback as computers will need plug in)

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Questions / Comments?

• Try it now• Go to url: pollev.com/ntmp

(no www in web address)

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Thanks for watching!

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