Polls

Overview

The Polling feature in Zoom is one way hosts can collect information from meeting participants. Polls can be created before a meeting or during a meeting, with the option to keep results anonymous.

Notes about Zoom Polls:

  • The Polling feature must be enabled in your Zoom account settings.
  • Polls can only be used in scheduled meetings and instant meetings that use your Personal Meeting ID. Polls are not available in instant meetings that occur in automatically-generated meeting IDs.
  • To manage polls, hosts must be using the Zoom desktop application. Participants can respond to polls while using the Zoom desktop application or mobile (iOS or Android) applications.
  • The original meeting host is the only person who can create/edit polls for a meeting. Anyone who the host role is transferred to, as well as co-hosts, only have the ability to launch polls that were previously created by the original host.
  • Detailed Poll Reports can be downloaded after a meeting.
    • In order for participants’ responses to be labeled with their names and email addresses, the registration feature must be enabled for the meeting and the polls must not be anonymous.
    • Even if polls are not set up as anonymous, participants’ names and email addresses will appear as “Guest” if the meeting registration feature is not enabled.
    • For polls that are set up as anonymous, participants’ names and email addresses will appear as “Anonymous.”

For Tufts faculty who plan to use Zoom for distance teaching and learning, please also refer to Education Technology's Teaching with Zoom guide.

  1. Go to tufts.zoom.us.
  2. Click Sign in and log in with your Tufts username (e.g. jjumbo01) and password.
  3. Select Settings from the left-hand menu.
  4. Scroll down to the Polling option. Click on the slider to turn it to the ON position.Enabling Polling in Settings

Polls can be created/edited either before or during a meeting by the original meeting host. Directions for both are described below.

Creating/Editing Polls Before a Meeting

  1. Go to tufts.zoom.us.
  2. Click Sign in and log in with your Tufts username (e.g. jjumbo01) and password.
  3. Within the Meetings page, find the meeting that you would like to add a poll to. Click on the name of the meeting to load the meeting info page.
  4. Scroll down to the Polling section at the bottom of the meeting info page.
  5. Click the Add button to create a new poll. You may also edit or delete existing polls.Polling section in meeting info page with Add button highlighted
  6. A window will appear where you can set up your poll.
    • Give the poll a title.
    • Decided whether or not you want poll results to be anonymous in the Poll Report.
    • Set up poll questions and and answers. (Single choice and multiple choice available.)Configuring poll questions and options
  7. When you are done, click Save.

Creating/Editing Polls During a Meeting

  1. Click the Polling button in the bottom toolbar.Polling button in host's toolbar
  2. In the Polls window that appears, click Edit In the top right corner.Polls window with Edit button highlighted
  3. A new page will open in your internet browser (e.g. Chrome or Firefox) with information about your meeting and a window where you can create a new poll.Configuring poll questions and options
  4. You can also close this window and scroll to the bottom of the meeting info page to edit/delete an existing poll or add additional polls.Polling section of meeting info page with Edit and Delete button highlighted for existing polls

Launching a Poll

  1. Click the Polling button in the bottom toolbar.Polling button in host's toolbar
  2. A Polls window will open that will allow you to preview your poll questions/answers. If you have multiple polls created for this meeting, use the dropdown menu toward the top right of the Polls window to select which poll you’d like to launch.Polls window with dropdown arrow highlighted for selected a different poll
  3. Click the Launch Poll button to start the poll.
    • A window will appear on participants’ screens where they can answer poll questions.
    • In the Polls window, hosts can see how many participants have completed the poll and view their responses in real time.Launching a poll and watching participants' responses in real time

Closing a Poll

When you are ready, click the End Poll button toward the bottom of the Polls window.

End Poll button

 

After launching and closing a poll during a Zoom meeting, click Share Results in the Polls window. A window will appear on participants’ screens where they can view the results. Click Stop Sharing when you are done.

Sharing poll results with participants

 

Note: Poll Reports may not be immediately available after a meeting. If a Poll Report that you generate appears blank upon opening, please try generating a new report again at a later time.

  1. Go to tufts.zoom.us.
  2. Click Sign in and log in with your Tufts username (e.g. jjumbo01) and password.
  3. Select Reports from the left-hand menu.
  4. Click Meeting.Meeting Reports option in the Reports page of Zoom
  5. Click the Poll Report option.
  6. Set a date range.
  7. Click Search.Searching for Poll Reports
  8. A list of results will appear. Find the meeting you wish to create a report for and click the Generate button.Generating Poll Report
  9. The Report Queue page will load. Find the Poll Report you wish to view and click the Download button. The report will download as a .csv file, which can be viewed in Microsoft Excel.Downloading Poll Report
    A sample poll report is shown below. Notice that for anonymous polls, User Names and User Email addresses are listed as “Anonymous”.Sample Poll Report