I have been looking for an online tool to enable students equipped with a smartphone to provide feedback during lectures. As many students have a device that can connect to the internet, using such a tool can help to improve engagement and can provide useful feedback and information.
One such tool is called Mentimeter (www.mentimeter.com). This company offers a free version that allows you to ask a maximum of two questions in a single event and a subscription model that has no limitations and costs around £3.50 per month for a basic academic licence.
I will be using Mentimeter in my first lecture tomorrow to gain feedback on the clarity of the unit assessments. It is a good opportunity to understand if there is any confusion about the assignments, hand in date, hand in method etc.
My two questions are:
- How clear are the assessments for the unit? The answer uses a 5 point Likert scale.
- Do you have any queries about the unit? This allows students to post a 140 character comment anonymously.
As a tutor, I can open the results page, view the information in real time and share this with the class.
Here is a sample of a poll.
Each poll that is created has a 6 digit code to limit access. To use the tool, students need to navigate to the Mentimeter page and then enter the code for a question set that I have made available.
It looks very easy to use. In addition to multiple choice answers and comments, other question types include scales, prioritisation (by distributing 100 points across the options) and rating an item from two perspectives to generate a scatter plot.
I will report back tomorrow on the success of the trial in my unit.
I have created a CEL trial that you can use to see the end user’s view of Mentimeter. One question has been created. Please navigate to www.govote.at and use the code 10 81 26. I will post these results too.
