Polls: Overview

What it does

The Poll tool allows users to set up an online vote.

Key Concepts

Vote: Users can vote for one or more of any number of answer options. The structure of the vote is governed by a maximum and minimum number of options that may be selected.
Results: You can choose when results are available to voters: immediately, after voting, after the closing date, or never.

Things to Consider

• Voting is anonymous.
• Participants may only vote once per poll.
• A poll can only consist of one question. If you want to ask a set of related questions it might be better to use the Tests and Quizzes tool.
• You can allow spoilt votes by selecting zero as the minimum number of answer options.

Creating a Poll

1. To create a poll, click on Add.
2. Enter the Poll Question and any additional instructions such as the number of answers that the voter may select.
3. Choose an opening date and a closing date, between which participants will be able to cast their votes.
4. Next, select the maximum and minimum number of answer options that a user may select. If you want users to only select one option from the possible answers given, set both numbers to 1. If users may select more than one option, adjust these settings accordingly.
5. Decide how and when results will be visible:

   • Always allows participants to see the results from the open date, even if they haven’t voted.
   • Never restricts participants from seeing the results
   • To participants who have voted allows participants to see the results from the open date, but only after they have voted
   • After closing date restricts access to the results until the closing date, after which all participants (regardless of whether they have voted or not) will be able to view them.

6. Click on Save and add options
7. Type in the first answer option available for the question and then click on Save and add options. Repeat until all answer options have been entered, then click on Save.

Editing a poll

To edit a poll, click Edit. Adjust the settings in the form. Links will be provided to add, edit and delete answer options. Click Save to finish.

Deleting a poll

To delete a poll, tick the relevant box in the Remove column and then click Update.

Viewing Poll results

To view results click the Results link alongside the relevant poll. The number of votes for each answer option, the percentages associated with these figures, and the total number of votes will be displayed.

Setting permissions

To control who may or may not vote, as well as who may create, edit and delete polls, click on Permissions in the options bar. Once you have adjusted the permissions by ticking the relevant boxes, click Save.