Poll Everywhere Examples: Question Types, Activities and Organiser Ideas
Poll Everywhere examples that organisers actually publish fall into a handful of activity types: word cloud, multiple choice, open-ended answers with upvoting, clickable image, ranking and story games. A workshop asked which word comes to mind about project management. A staff meeting planned a clickable image matching pets with their owners. A classroom ranked which lesson topics to review. Each case was published by the vendor's own training and engagement writers, so every idea traces back to a named organiser setting.
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Word clouds: a single word on screen
The word cloud is the activity Poll Everywhere returns to most often in its published cases. One facilitator asked participants what word comes to mind when they think of project management, and the answers built a picture of the room's shared vocabulary on screen. The same training material describes a second twist: make the title a riddle with a single-word answer, not a sentence or a list, and let the cloud fill up until the solution appears. Both Poll Everywhere examples work because the prompt is short enough to answer in a breath.
- Word association: participants type one word, and repeated answers grow larger on the shared screen.
- Riddles: a single-word answer keeps the cloud readable and the reveal quick.
- Openers for a training day where most of the room has not met before.
Multiple choice and the matching question
Multiple choice is the plainest of the Poll Everywhere question types, and the published cases show it doing real work. A project-management presentation asked the audience what causes projects to fail, which turns a lecture into a diagnosis of the room's own experience. The clickable image is the closest thing to a matching question in the catalogue: a staff meeting planned an activity that asked people to match the pet with the owner by clicking the right picture. Among Poll Everywhere examples, that one is the most social, because people argue about which dog belongs to whom before the answer shows.
- Multiple choice with set options, such as the causes of project failure.
- Clickable image questions, where the answer is a spot on a picture.
- Ranking, where participants order the choices rather than picking one.
Icebreaker games the vendor has published
Poll Everywhere's own engagement blog describes a games format built around a two-truths-and-a-lie round. Enter the participant's name as the title and two truths and a lie as the responses, then let the room guess which statement is the invention. A second game borrows from improv: the audience controls the direction of a story by answering the questions as they appear, so the plot bends toward whatever the room picks. Both are Poll Everywhere examples of an icebreaker doing more than filling dead air; each one hands the room a decision to make together.
- Two truths and a lie, with a person's name as the activity title.
- Improv storytelling steered entirely by audience answers.
- Upvoted open answers that surface what a group wants from a session.
Key features behind the published activities
Four key features carry every one of the Poll Everywhere examples. The first is free-text response from a phone or laptop, with participants able to upvote each other's answers, which is how one workshop surfaced what everyone hoped to learn. The second is ranking, which asks the room to order topics instead of choosing a single favourite. The third is the clickable image type, which accepts any picture and is what makes a matching question possible at all. The fourth is the live screen: answers appear while the facilitator is still talking, so the group reacts in the moment rather than after the session.
- Free-text responses with upvoting between participants.
- Ranking activity types for ordering choices in sequence.
- Clickable images for picture-based matching.
- Live display on screen while the presenter speaks.
How to create a poll using Poll Everywhere
The published Poll Everywhere examples all follow the same short path, and it begins with a choice, not a sentence. The facilitator picks the activity type that fits the question, writes the question and its options, and then presents it to the room. Several activities sit in one deck, so a facilitator can stack multiple poll everywhere questions in sequence without rebuilding anything between them. The steps below spell out that order in the shape the vendor's own material implies.
- Choose the activity type before typing anything else.
- Write the question in the words the room will actually read.
- Present it live and let the screen carry the conversation.
Common uses in meetings, classrooms and training
The common thread across the published cases is a room that is together, in person or on a call. A workshop opened a training day by asking what participants hoped to learn and upvoting the answers. A staff meeting planned a pet-matching game for its next gathering. A presentation used a question about project failure to start discussion instead of a warm-up anecdote. Poll Everywhere's blog also recommends letting students rank which lesson topics to review, which turns a revision session into a decision the class conducts on itself. Read together, the Poll Everywhere examples describe a toolkit for live rooms rather than for anything scheduled or self-paced.
- Training days: expectations gathered and upvoted by the room.
- Staff meetings: light social games between agenda items.
- Classrooms: ranked review topics before a revision session.
- Conference talks: one diagnostic question before the main material.
Limits, rules and what the examples do not cover
Honest boundaries first. Every published Poll Everywhere example describes a workshop, a classroom, a staff meeting or a presentation; none describes a public contest or a promotion, and an organiser's own published rules decide what participation is worth in that setting. Nothing in the vendor's material promises anything about how a third party reviews responses, and no page of this site can promise that either. Treat the catalogue as a meeting toolkit, and leave contest promotions to the organiser's own rules.
The gaps are worth naming in subject words because they shape what a facilitator should expect. The material does not explain tie-breaking for ranking activities, so plan a fallback before the session. It does not document self-paced collection after a session ends. And it stays silent on prize settings, which is exactly where an organiser's rules, not the tool's activity types, carry the decision.
- The published cases do not say how a ranking activity breaks a tie.
- They do not cover scheduled or self-paced polling outside a live session.
- No published case shows the tools used for a prize contest.
| Activity type | Published example |
|---|---|
| Word cloud | Which word comes to mind for project management? |
| Open-ended with upvoting | What everyone hoped to learn, upvoted by the room |
| Multiple choice | What causes projects to fail? |
| Clickable image | Match the pet with the owner |
| Story game | Audience answers steer the direction of a story |
| Ranking | Students pick which lesson topics to review |
| Two truths and a lie | A participant's name as the title, three statements as the responses |
| Word cloud riddle | A riddle with a single-word answer |
How to do it
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Pick the activity type
Open the activities area and choose the type that fits the question: multiple choice for set options, word cloud for one-word answers, clickable image for a matching question, ranking for ordering. Every one of the published Poll Everywhere examples begins with this choice, and it decides everything the facilitator types next.
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Write the question and the options
Type the question exactly as the room will read it on screen. For a riddle-style word cloud, keep the answer to a single word. For two truths and a lie, put the participant's name in the title and the three statements in the responses, which is the shape the vendor's blog documents.
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Present it and read the room
Share the activity with the audience during the session and let responses arrive live. In the published Poll Everywhere examples the facilitator reads answers aloud or lets the screen show them, which is what turns a single question into a conversation the room keeps after the activity ends.
Common questions
What types of activities are available in Poll Everywhere?
Six activity types appear in the published examples: word cloud, open-ended text with upvoting, multiple choice, clickable image, ranking and story games. A workshop used the word cloud for project-management associations, and a staff meeting planned the clickable image. Each type is documented on Poll Everywhere's own training and engagement pages, so the catalogue comes from cases the vendor itself published.
What are common uses for Poll Everywhere?
The common uses are live training sessions, staff meetings and classrooms. Facilitators gather expectations with upvoted open answers, open discussion with a diagnostic question about project failure, and end a gathering with a pet-matching game. Poll Everywhere's blog also recommends ranking lesson topics before a revision class.
What are the key features of Poll Everywhere?
Key features shown in the published examples are free-text responses with upvoting, multiple choice with set options, ranking, and clickable images that turn a picture into an answer surface. Together they cover one-word associations, diagnostics, ordering and matching without extra hardware.
What types of questions and activities can I create?
You can create word associations, riddles, diagnostics, matching games, rankings and improv stories with Poll Everywhere's activity types. The two-truths-and-a-lie icebreaker works by putting a participant's name in the title and the three statements as the responses. Riddles need a single-word answer so the cloud stays readable.
How do I create a poll using Poll Everywhere?
Pick the activity type first, then type the question and its options, then present it to the room. The published examples all follow that order: the facilitator chose word cloud, clickable image or ranking before writing a single question. Several activities sit in one deck, so multiple questions follow one another in sequence.
Where these facts come from
- polleverywhere.com. polleverywhere.com/case-studies/designing-engaging-training-sessions-and-meetings.
- polleverywhere.com. polleverywhere.com/case-studies/designing-engaging-training-sessions-and-meetings.
- polleverywhere.com. polleverywhere.com/case-studies/designing-engaging-training-sessions-and-meetings.
- blog.polleverywhere.com. blog.polleverywhere.com/unique-ways-to-improve-student-engagement.
- blog.polleverywhere.com. blog.polleverywhere.com/unique-ways-to-improve-student-engagement.
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