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
• 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 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 to Modules. Click +Module button in the upper right.
   
   
   
5. Enter "Poll Everywhere" in the Module Name. Then click Add Module.
   
   
   Leave this module unpublished to students.
6. Go to your Poll Everywhere module and click the + sign on the right.
   
   
   
7. From the dropdown choose External Tool. Then choose Poll Everywhere from the list. Scroll down and check the box for "Load in a new tab."  Then click Add Item.
   
   
   
8. Click on the Poll Everywhere link that you made within the module.
   
9. You should see a "Load Poll Everywhere in a new window" button. Click this button to launch the Poll Everywhere connection.
   
   Note: If you do not see it, go to Modules and to the Poll Everywhere link you created. Click the three dots to the right and click Edit. Check the box for "Load in a new tab." Update.
   
   
10. In the new tab, click the button "Continue to csusm.instructure.com."
    
    
    
11. Click the button "Sync roster" to import the students from your course into Poll Everywhere.
    
12. Click the "Go to Participants page" button. 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.
    
    
    
13. 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. To do so, follow steps 7-10 above.
    
    

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

Push Poll Everywhere grades to your course

1. Click on the Poll Everywhere link that you made on the Modules page.
   
   
   
2. Click the "Load Poll Everywhere in a new window" button.
   
   
   
3. Click the button "Add new gradebook."
   
   
   
4. In the side panel, select Gradebook and click Continue.
   
   
   
5. Select the activities you wish to include in the report and click "Create report."
   
   
   
6. The name of the Gradebook report will be the name of the column in Cougar Courses. Rename the report by clicking the "Rename" at the top of the report. Review the Gradebook report, and when you are ready click the Export button in the bottom right.
   
   
   
7. A small pop-up window will open asking of you would like to export the grades or the participation.
   
   
   
8. The pop-up window will indicate when the export has completed.
   
   
   
9. When you go back into Canvas and click on Grades, you will see the new gradebook column created.
   
   Note: The grade will be out of 100 points and unfortunately it is not possible to change this without needing to manually regrade each student. If you change the value and re-export, the point value will be reset to 100. Another option is to put your Poll Everywhere assignment(s) into a weighted assignment group. Or you could make this Poll Everywhere assignment not count toward the final grade and manually add an assignment with the correct value where you manually enter the grades.
   
   

Additional Poll Everywhere Resources

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