Ad-Hoc Polls

For teachers

When You Need a Quick Read

Sometimes you need to gauge the room and you do not have a pre-built question ready. Maybe a student asks a great question and you want to see if others share the same confusion. Maybe you want a quick show of hands on whether to spend more time on a topic. Ad-hoc polls let you launch a poll instantly without leaving your presentation.

Available Ad-Hoc Poll Types

Quizzibility offers four quick-launch poll formats:

  • Yes / No — The simplest possible poll. "Should we go over this example again?" "Did the reading make sense?" One tap to answer.
  • A / B / C / D — A multi-option poll without custom labels. Use it when you write options on the whiteboard or describe them verbally. Students just pick a letter.
  • Rate 1–5 — A quick sentiment or confidence check. "How confident are you about recursion, 1 to 5?" Gives you a distribution, not just a binary.
  • Open Response — Students type a short text answer. Good for collecting questions, ideas, or one-word summaries. Responses can be displayed as a live feed or word cloud.

Device-Only vs Projected Modes

Ad-hoc polls have two display modes:

Projected mode shows the poll question and live results on your presenter screen. Use this when the poll is part of the class discussion and you want everyone to see the outcome.

Device-only mode keeps the poll private — it appears only on student devices and your instructor dashboard. Use this when you want honest responses without the social pressure of a public display (e.g., "Rate your understanding of this topic" or "Do you have questions you're afraid to ask out loud?").

Saving Polls to Your Deck

After running an ad-hoc poll, Quizzibility offers to save it to your current deck as a permanent question. This is useful when a spontaneous question turns out to be a great teaching tool — save it so you can reuse it next semester. Saved polls become regular questions in your question bank, editable and reusable like any other question.

Tips for Effective Ad-Hoc Polls

Keep them short and clear. An ad-hoc poll should take students less than 10 seconds to understand and answer. If you need a complex question with detailed options, build it in the question bank ahead of time. Ad-hoc polls are best for quick, informal reads on how the class is feeling or thinking.

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