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Vevox: live polling, student Q&A and interaction

John Andrews
John Andrews

This article explains how NCI staff can get access to Vevox, what it can be used for, and how to run a first session. It also gives practical teaching examples and explains where to get support.

Vevox lets everyone in a class take part through live polls, quizzes, Q&A and surveys. You can use it in face-to-face, online and hybrid classes. Students can answer on a phone, tablet or computer.

Start here: Vevox is available to all NCI staff. To get access, contact the Teaching Enhancement Unit (TEU) and ask for an invitation. Open the link in the invitation to set up your account.

 

1. Get access and support

  1. Contact TEU and ask for a Vevox invitation.
  2. Open the invitation link and set up your account.
  3. Sign in and create your first session. We recommend starting small. You could try one opening poll and one check of understanding In your first class.

Support from TEU. Vevox is easy to use, but TEU is happy to provide support or training if you need it. TEU can help you plan an activity, choose between anonymous and identified participation, or test Vevox in a browser or PowerPoint.

2. What Vevox does

A member of staff creates a Vevox session and adds questions or activities. Students open vevox.app in a browser. They enter the session's 9-digit ID or scan its QR code. They normally do not need an account or an app. The lecturer opens each poll and shows the group result. The class can then discuss the answers, or the lecturer can adjust what is taught next.

  1. Live polls and quizzes – ask students questions and show the results straight away. Use polls to check understanding, gather views or measure confidence. Add correct answers and scoring if you want to run a quiz.
  2. Q&A - let students submit questions and like questions from other students. Q&A can be anonymous or identified.
  3. Self-paced surveys - collect questions, reflections or feedback during or outside a live class.

 

Anonymous or identified? Vevox sessions are anonymous by default. In an identified session, Vevox links poll and survey answers to names in reports. You can choose whether names appear beside Q&A posts. Choose the setting before the class. Tell students which setting you are using and how you will use their answers.

 

3. Valuable ways to use Vevox

 

Each activity should have a clear teaching purpose. Start with what you want students to do or what you need to learn from them. Then choose the Vevox feature. The examples below begin with uses that can improve learning in an ordinary class.

Teaching need Example activity Vevox feature
Check understanding Ask a multiple-choice question halfway through an explanation. Use wrong options that reflect common mistakes. Discuss why students chose each answer. Revisit the topic if needed. Live poll
Find out what students know at the start of a class Start with a poll, rating or word cloud. Use the result to set the level of the class. You can also find common misunderstandings without singling anyone out. Poll / word cloud
Widen participation Keep an anonymous Q&A open so quieter students can ask questions. Let the class like questions. Answer the questions with the most support first. Q&A
Low-stakes practice Run a short quiz at the start or end of class. Use the answers to review key ideas. Quiz
Discuss an answer and vote again Ask a question that requires students to think, rather than simply recall a fact. After students answer, ask them to discuss their reasoning with a partner. Run the question again and compare the results. Use the change in responses to begin a class discussion. Repeat poll
Monitor student progress on ongoing projects Use identified responses only if you need to follow up with individual students. Hide names from the class display when this is suitable. Explain in advance why names are being collected.

This can be very useful to monitor student progress on an ongoing project or continuous assessment assignment.		 Identified poll
Gather useful feedback on your module Use an exit ticket or mid-module check. Ask one rating question and one open-text question. At the next class, say what you will keep or change in response. Poll / survey
Prioritise ideas Use ranking or rating in a workshop, revision class or group planning activity. Show the result and explain how it will shape the next step. Ranking / rating
Prepare or reflect Send a short survey before class to gather questions, or after class to support reflection. Tell students when it will close. Survey

 

Local pilot insight. The NCI pilot involved several lecturers. Staff valued the option to use named polling for some of the use cases above. Named Polling is not available in some alternative solutions.

 

4. Choose how you will present

You can run Vevox in its browser-based Present View. You can also add polls to a PowerPoint deck.

Option Use it when Practical advice
Present View in a browser Use it for your first session, a discussion-led class or the simplest set-up. Create and run the session from the Vevox dashboard. Present View works on Mac and Windows.
PowerPoint add-in Use it when you want polls to appear inside an existing slide deck. Make sure the add-in is installed and you are signed in on the computer you will use. Test the deck in slideshow mode before class.

 

PowerPoint issues. A problem adding in PowerPoint arose during the NCI pilot. If you use PowerPoint, test it first. Keep the Vevox dashboard open so you can switch to Present View if needed.

 

5. Run your first session

  1. Create a session and give it a clear name.
  2. Choose anonymous or identified participation before students join.
  3. Add one to three useful polls or questions. If you are building a quiz, add the correct answer and feedback.
  4. Choose Present View or the PowerPoint add-in.
  5. Test the session once. Join from a phone as a student. Check the main display and make sure the session status is Started.
  6. Share the QR code or 9-digit Session ID. Give participants a moment to join before opening the first poll.
  7. Close the poll, show the result and respond to it. What you discuss or change next is the most useful part of the activity.

6. Use Vevox well

  1. State the purpose. Tell students what the activity is for and what you will do with the result.
  2. Plan what you will do. Decide in advance what you will do if many students choose a common wrong answer or report low confidence.
  3. Explain whether answers are anonymous. Tell students whether the session is anonymous or identified before they respond. Use identified mode only when it adds real value.
  4. Include everyone. Allow time to think. Provide another way to take part if a student cannot use a device or connection.
  5. Respond to feedback. Summarise what the answers showed and what will happen next.

7. Quick troubleshooting

 

Issue What to check
Students cannot join Make sure the session status is Started. Check that students have the correct QR code, nine-digit Session ID and, if used, passcode. Ask them to open vevox.app in a browser.
Students cannot submit an answer Make sure the session is started and the poll is open. Join from another device to check exactly what students can see.
Results are not visible on the presentation screen Close the poll and select Show results. In Present View, the control bar is used to open and close polls and display their results.
PowerPoint add-in fails

Open the same session i the Vevox dashboard and use Present View.

Because it is the same Vevox session, participants continue to use the same Session ID.
The identification setting is wrong Changing between Anonymous and Identified disconnects participants, who must then rejoin. Pause the class and explain what is happening. Changing only between Show Names and Hide Names does not disconnect participants.

 

Further help

For NCI access, support or training: contact the Teaching Enhancement Unit.

Additional help desk articles from the Vevox below;

  1. How participants join a Vevox session
  2. How to host a Vevox session
  3. Using Vevox with PowerPoint
  4. Choosing anonymous or identified participation

 

 

 

 

 

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