TEACHING ONLINE CLASSES: Interactive Polls Help End Sucky Training

One of the easiest ways to engage online students is by displaying quizzes and polls. When I start my classes, displaying a poll is a great way to break the ice and get my class started on the right foot.   Most virtual training platforms (GoToTraining, WebEx, Connect, etc) allow you to create polls within the tool. You can then display the poll to your virtual students on the fly. In the image below, I've created a poll within GoToTraining.

While there's nothing wrong with creating and displaying the kind of poll shown above, you can crank up the interest quite a few notches by creating a visually-appealing poll as part of your presentation. In the image below, I've created the same poll as shown in the first image but it's in my PowerPoint presentation and certainly more visual.

But if you want to truly engage your learners, you've got to interact with them. Instead of just asking my attendees to tell me their favorite cereal via audio or asking them to type their favorite via the chat pod, I can let them draw on the screen. In GoToTraining, I can enable this feature via my control panel (by choosing Attendees can draw).

A series of drawing tools is added to each student's control panel and they can draw on my screen. And just like that, I've got my students fully engaged... even having fun (perish the thought).

Interactive polls are just a tiny step toward a goal of eradicating sucky training forever. If you'd like to learn more tips, tricks, and get real-world solutions to everyday training challenges (from creating awesome visuals to engagement tactics to writing perfect quiz questions), check out the Certified Online Training Professional course offered exclusively by the International Council for Certified Online Training Professionals (ICCOTP).

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Kevin Siegel is the founder and president of IconLogic, Inc. He has written hundreds of step-by-step computer training books on applications such as Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Adobe RoboHelp, Adobe Presenter, and TechSmith Camtasia. Kevin spent five years in the U.S. Coast Guard as an award-winning photojournalist and has three decades’ experience as a trainer, publisher, technical writer, and eLearning developer. Kevin is a Certified Master Trainer (CMT), Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+), Certified Online Professional Trainer (COTP), and a frequent speaker at trade shows and conventions.

Comments

[Holly French]

I love this idea! My issue with conducting online training is that the trainer MUST work much harder to engage their audience while still trying to make the training impactful. I need to try this.

[Kevin Siegel]

Hi Holly,

Teaching online isn’t easy and engaging a virtual audience isn’t common sense. I’d encourage you to attend an upcoming Certified Online Training Professional course where we tackle these kinds of issues. (www.icccotp.com)

[Dr. Joanne hunter]

Where does the data go/how is the data presented after participants answer the poll? Does everyone see participants answers or just the teacher? or is this just a measure to keep participants busy, happy and good?

[Kevin Siegel]

Hi Joanne,

In a survey/test created by the training space, the results can often be stored by the training platform and you can run reports on them. In the example that I show in the article, this isn't a true survey or quiz so the responses aren't stored anywhere. I use this kind of interaction for informal polling. Of course, I also record the sessions so attendees can view the results later.