The University has purchased staff licenses to Mentimeter, an interactive polling solution. This gives staff free access to all the features of Mentimeter if they sign up for an account with the University. Since its launch in October, use of the tool has been growing across the University.
Mentimeter gets students more actively involved in sessions whether they be seminars, lectures or workshops. Students can type in a code or scan a QR code and get right to the activity. It is particularly useful for engaging large groups especially when some of those students may be anxious to speak out or ask a question in front of their peers.
Mentimeter offers a range of features and activities such as:
- Multiple choice quizzes
- Word Cloud creation
- Pin on an image
- Q&A sessions
- Quick forms
- Open ended questions and more!
How does it work?
Once you have requested your license and completed the sign up, you will find that the Mentimeter “Home” page has a simple interface. An activity or presentation in Mentimeter is known as a Menti.
To start your own Menti, click the black “New Menti” button. This will take you to a new presentation. The first slide of the presentation gives you three options:
- Start from scratch
- Use a template
- Import slides (from a PowerPoint, Keynote or PDF)
When you click “start from scratch”, this gives you the option to choose from a range of interactive questions, quiz competitions or content slides. Once you have chosen an option, you can use the right-hand menu to begin setting up the question/activity/presentation.
You can add as many slides to the presentation as you wish and have a range of content types. As with any presentation, you can change the size and colour of the text as well as the background. You can include images too. There are options to have “themes” and to adapt the participation options to your needs. For example, you can change the settings so students can select multiple options and you can show responses live or hide responses until everyone has answered.
It certainly is a solution that is easy to use and play around with. Nevertheless, there are lots of guides and support out there too. A good place to start looking for support is the ASK page on Mentimeter.
Why move from my free license?
You may have been using Mentimeter for years now and be using a free license like that you signed up for. It is worth switching your account to a University one for several reasons:
- With a license, you are no longer limited to 50 participants on your Menti at one time. You can have up too 10,000 participants!
- You can access the moderation feature to assess the suitability of responses
- You get access to a wider range of activities such as the “quick form”.
- You can export results to Excel
- You can collaborate with other colleagues to create presentations together
The University of Lancaster has also done due diligence when agreeing to purchase licenses from this company and therefore, it is more secure to use this one than any other third party solution that may not have been investigated.
How can I learn more on how to use it?
On Friday 22nd November, I gave a training session to Faculty of Health and Medicine (FHM) staff on how to use Mentimeter. It was part of a series of short, lunchtime sessions on a range of topics. The recording of this session is available to view on eStream. If you need further help or support on the use of this tool, get in touch with myself if you are in FHM or raise a ticket with the IT Help Centre.