Connecting Poll Everywhere with Cougar Courses

Poll Everywhere is an online polling tool that allows you to engage your students by asking them questions during your synchronous course session. Students can respond to these questions using their smartphone or computer.

While you can create a free Poll Everywhere account, CSUSM has a site license with Poll Everywhere which allows for polling a greater number of students, more advanced features, and the ability to connect to your course(s) in Cougar Courses. To request an account please email us at cchelp@csusm.edu. 

Poll Everywhere is integrated into Cougar Courses, which allows the course roster to sync with Poll Everywhere and allows grades to be easily pushed from Poll Everywhere to Cougar Courses.

• Connect your course to Poll Everywhere
• Creating assignments in Poll Everywhere
• Have your students set up their Poll Everywhere accounts
• Push Poll Everywhere grades to your course

Connect your course to Poll Everywhere

1. You must have a CSUSM Poll Everywhere account to be able to connect your course. Email cchelp@csusm.edu to request a CSUSM Poll Everywhere account.
2. Ensure your course in Cougar Courses has the appropriate start and end dates. On your course navigation click on Settings, then scroll to the Participation section of the page. We provide default Start and End dates. Those dates will work with Poll Everywhere. However, if you changed the Participation setting from the default of Term to Course, make sure you set your Start and End dates. The Start date should be in the past and the End date should when final grades are due or later. If you updated either date, scroll to the bottom and click "Update course details."
   
   
   
3. Ensure your course is published to students. If you are not ready to publish your course yet, you will need to wait to connect your course to Poll Everywhere until after it is published.
   
   
   
4. Once you have verified your course dates and published your course, go back to the Settings page and click the Navigation tab at the top.
   
   
   
5. Click and hold on the “Poll Everywhere” link and drag it up to the top group to add it to the Course Navigation. Note: Students will not be able to see this link in the course.
   
   
   
6. Once you have moved it, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Save” button to save your changes.
   
   
7. You should now see a Poll Everywhere link in the course navigation. Click on the link to begin setting up your course in Poll Everywhere.
   
   
   
8. In the new tab, click the button "Continue to csusm.instructure.com."
   
   
   
9. Click the button "Sync roster" to import the students from your course into Poll Everywhere. Note: Students who do not have a Poll Everywhere account will receive a welcome email with a link to create their account.  
   
   
   
10. Click the Participants tab in the left-hand side navigation. Once on the participants page, you will be able to verify that the import took place because your students will be listed. It may take a few minutes for them to show up.
    
    
    
11. If you establish the connection to Poll Everywhere prior to the add/drop deadline, you may need to later resync your Poll Everywhere roster as students add or drop your course.
12. Create your assignments in Poll Everywhere (see next section).

Creating assignments in Poll Everywhere

New for Fall 2025!

You must create your assignments in Poll Everywhere before you have students participate.

For full instructions on how to set up assignments and polls please refer to Poll Everywhere’s Creating Assignments section in their Getting Started with Course Management guide.

Have your students set up their Poll Everywhere accounts

• Students need to have Poll Everywhere accounts using their CSUSM emails in order for you to accurately sync your Poll Everywhere to your gradebook.
• Provide this guide to your students to walk them through how to create their Poll Everywhere accounts and join your Poll Everywhere sessions

Pushing Poll Everywhere grades to your course

Once you have set up your assignments and students have participated, you can sync grades for those assignments.

1. Go to Poll Everywhere using the link in your course navigation.
   
   
   
2. Click the “Sync Grades” button next to the assignment you want to add to your course. This will create the assignment in Cougar Courses and bring over the grades.
   
   

   Warning: If you click the “Sync Grades” button for any assignment that students have not yet participated in, the gradebook in Cougar Courses will show a 0 for every student for that assignment, so you will want to wait until students have participated in the polls before syncing grades. If you no longer need an assignment, delete the assignment from Poll Everywhere first and then from your course in Cougar Courses.

Additional Poll Everywhere Resources

• Poll Everywhere Support Center
• Poll Everywhere Applications (to embed Poll Everywhere in PPT, Keynote, Google Slides, etc.)
• Poll Everywhere Instructor Guide