Moodle "choice" activity

(Originally posted 1/6/11)

Looking for an easy way to let your students vote? Try using the "Choice" module (under "Add an Activity") in Moodle. It only takes a minute to set up. Of course, you can also use Google forms and other online tools to take a vote, but one nice feature of the Moodle choice is that you know who has and hasn't yet participated.

The results look like this (whether students see the results and whether there is a limit for each choice are optional settings):



Here's a video on how to set it up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9Ynqdv6MHc
I would love to help anyone get started with this- just let me know.

Cell phone surveys

(Originally posted 3/1/11)

At the last faculty meeting, we used a web site that allowed people to text their responses to a prompt and projected the results. You may have thought that such a thing is difficult to pull off. In fact, it's quite easy- and it's free (for up to 30 responses per question). The site is http://www.polleverywhere.com/ .

There are some things to consider when using this site, however:
1) Equity. Many kids have cell phones with unlimited text plans, but not all. One nice thing about polleverywhere is that they provide a URL for submission over the web. Students without cell phones (or with smartphones) can use this, instead.

2) Anonymity. You don't know who is submitting which response, so a conversation about appropriateness is probably a good idea beforehand.

You can create multiple-choice or text questions. You can also download the results afterward for future reference.