Use Clicker Surveys for Quick Tabulation

You can make short work of polling audiences with clicker surveys and voting, whether in your classroom or in a large presentation.

Have you ever posed a question in class only to see one or two hands go up, and--after students checking out how everyone else is voting-- maybe 3 or 4 more hands go up? Peer pressure often times makes voting or surveys a little skewed, especially in elementary and adolescent audiences.

Follow these steps to conduct a survey using CPS:

• Pass out remotes randomly.
• If your survey is ready-made, run CPS through a Student-Managed or Teacher-Managed mode.
• Use CPS Verbal Mode if you are making up an on-the-spot survey.

Below are some ideas for using clickers surveys and voting:

CPS Saves the Day at NCSS

December 1st at the National Council of Social Studies (NCSS) House of Delegates (HOD) meeting was the setting and CPS came to the rescue. The HOD had prepared to use CPS for their resolution voting in an effort to avoid counting them by hand, speed up the voting process, and allow for accurate documentation of all votes that took place. This year's ballot consisted of 17 resolutions to be discussed and voted on, along with a couple of other issues that needed a stamp of approval.

Everything was going smoothly until the final resolution came up. This resolution had already been tabled the prior year and sparked a very heated and "interesting" discussion. When the resolution was presented this year, there was an immediate move to table. This vote passed by a very slim margin. This sparked some interesting discussion for several minutes and eventually an amendment was passed (using CPS via the verbal option) and then brought before the HOD to untable (again using the CPS verbal option). This too passed and a vote on the resolution was at hand.

The HOD was able to pass the resolution from start to finish in a matter of 15-20 minutes, by the slimmest of margins.

In past years, the vote had been so close that there were recounts demanded several times as a show of hands did not lead to reliable numbers in a room of nearly 200. Using CPS, the data spoke for itself and we could obtain definitive data in a matter of 10-12 seconds as opposed to the 30-45 minutes it had taken in past years.

Not only was this a great example of CPS in one of its finest moments but also a wonderful example of how a democracy works.

Sample Meeting Survey

The video below was made by our eInstruction colleague in Idaho/Utah, Amy Jones (www.blueclickers.com). This video is not flashy, as that wasn't the intent. However, it is a fantastic example of the type of clicker survey questions that can be asked in a business or association meeting to make polling members a quick and effective task.

We'd love to hear your best ideas for clicker surveys.
Share your idea and we'll pay it forward!