Mentimeter’s own help pages are very comprehensive and well categorised, and individual guides contain step-by step instructions with screenshots and/or video walkthroughs. For an introductory video and an overview of the 'My presentations' dashboard, please see the following links:

Video tutorial: Create your first Mentimeter presentation (you tube 1 min 51 secs) | The Mentimeter dashboard | Using folders

Information on different question types is available below, with links to the relevant help pages.

Please also see the following blog post for guidance on using open text responses safely and dealing with inappropriate or offensive posts.

Multiple-choice questions

Multiple-choice questions provide an option for students to select one or more options from a list.  You can pre-select a correct answer to be revealed at a time of your choice if you wish.  The results can displayed in the form of a bar chart as follows:

Alternatively, the results can be shown in the form of a pie chart, donut or dots as follows:

For multiple-choice questions with a single correct answer you can also apply ‘segmentation‘ which allows you to display the results of questions organised according to responses to a previous question. This can allow you to make connections between the results of different questions and to highlight patterns in, for example, whether those answering question 1 in a particular way are more likely to answer question 2 in a particular way. Asking the same question(s) at different stages of a session can also be a useful way of exploring and highlighting changes after teaching or discussion. The following video example shows how segmentation was used by Sally Quinn (Department of Psychology) to show a breakdown of how responses to a question asked at the beginning of the session changed when the same question was asked at the end:

Sally Quinn: Using segmentation to track changes in learning

Ranking

Ranking questions allow students to put options in order and displays the responses by average ranking:

Scales

Scales questions allow students to select a response on a sliding scale.  Answers are presented with the mean highlighted and the distribution shown.  Hovering over a question shows the specifics of how many students selected each option on the scale:

The following example shows how Gareth Evans (Department of Biology) used scales questions to encourage self assessment at the beginning of workshops by asking students to rate how well they felt they had met each of the learning outcomes for the week.

This was the first part of a standard pattern of activities in workshops to support a flipped learning approach. The review and self-assessment activity was followed by a Q&A, a knowledge check, and a group practice activity with discussion and feedback. This is described in the following example video:

Gareth Evans: Mentimeter for flipped workshops

When using scales questions it is possible to collect and compare historical data to identify trends in the way that students respond.  When reusing a presentation, you can opt to ‘reset results’ and use the same questions a second time.  If you do this, historical responses are stored and you can use the ‘Show trends’ option.  In the example shown below, students are asked to rate their confidence about meeting the module learning outcomes at the end of each weekly session.  The ‘show trends’ option reveals how confidence levels for each outcome might rise and fall as the module progresses to track self-assessment of progress and achievement over time.

Word clouds

Word cloud questions allow students to add words or short phrases in response to a prompt.  These are then collated with the most frequent additions shown with the largest size. This can be useful for a wide range of activities requiring short individual anonymous responses to be collated and shared for feedback and discussion. It can be used to, for example, elicit ideas, examples, suggestions, feedback and reflection.  These can then be used as a start point for further discussion.

Open-ended questions

Open-ended questions are suitable when you would like to elicit longer responses.  This question type can be useful for eliciting anonymous responses from individuals as per the following example:

It can also be used to collate ideas and examples following group work.  In the following example, groups posted their response to a series of questions, identifying their table number for further discussion of noteworthy responses:

By default, Mentimeter is completely anonymous.  For strategies to reduce the likelihood of any misuse of anonymous word cloud or open-ended questions, and to limit the impact of any inappropriate or offensive responses, please see the following blog post:
Using open text responses safely and dealing with inappropriate or offensive posts.

Q&A

The Q&A option within Mentimeter allows students to post anonymous questions either on specific 'Q&A' slides, or at any point during a presentation.  You can decide whether you would like the questions to be private or viewable by all as they come in. You can also decide whether you would like to be able to 'moderate' questions which means they need to be approved before they are displayed on the screen.  Moderation can be done by the presenter or you can share a link to allow moderation by a colleague. 

Comments

You can also use the commenting option if you would like to give the option for students to post short transitory comments during a presentation.  These will appear for a moment on the bottom corner of the screen before disappearing.  Unlike Q&A questions, they are not saved and cannot be exported afterwards.

Reactions

A final option for eliciting quick responses during a presentation is to enable 'reactions' to allow students to select 'emojis' during a presentation which will display on the screen at the bottom of a slide.  These can be added to content slides by selecting which emojis you would like to be made available (options include: heart, question mark, thumbs up, thumbs down, and cat). These can be found at the bottom of any content slide.  They are not available on question slides.

By default, Mentimeter is completely anonymous.  For strategies to reduce the likelihood of any misuse of anonymous questions or comments, and to limit the impact of any inappropriate or offensive responses, please see the following blog post:
Using open text responses safely and dealing with inappropriate or offensive posts.

Quiz competition

Quiz competition questions allow you to introduce a competitive element by allocating scores to individuals or groups for correct answers to a series of questions. You can also allocate extra points for quicker answers. The scores are then displayed in a leaderboard with updates after each question. 

Pin on image

Pin on an image questions allow students to add a pin on a map or label an image, such as in the example below which allow users to drop a pin on a map indicating the location of their last job.

2 x grid

2 x 2 grid questions provide an option for rating scales along two separate axes to show relationships between selections. Students can respond by selecting where an item sits on the two scales. Results are plotted with scale 1 on the x-axis and scale 2 on the y-axis, and the coordinates for each item represent the average response. As with the scales question type, hovering over a response will show how each individual responded (up to a maximum of 50 responses).

Quick form

Quick form questions allow you to create a survey with responses not displayed on screen but for download afterwards as an excel file. When used with question slides, the downloaded information also allows you to connect the survey data to the data from slides to, for example, identify participants and find out how particular respondents answered each question.  

Slide library

A range of new and extra slide and question types are available from the slide library. These include:

• Guess the number: Students choose a response along a numerical scale before a correct answer is shown (with a margin of error if needed). The correct answer is highlighted along with information on how many responses there were for each option. This could be useful for factual questions involving numerical responses such as calculations, stats, prices, and dates.
  
• This or that: Choose between two options
• Traffic lights: Choose between three responses: yes, maybe, no 
• Truth or lie: An 'ice-breaker' slide in which you can add some personal facts and encourage students to identify which are true and which are lies. This could also be used as an activity for students to introduce themselves to each other. The following video shows how Yaprak Tavman (Department of Economics) used this question type to create an icebreaker activity at the start of her seminars to help increase engagement and create a positive atmosphere for learning and groupwork: Fostering engagement and collaboration in seminars using Mentimeter (3 mins 08 secs – UoY log in to Panopto required)
• Timer/countdown: Display how much time is left for an activity
• ‘Spin the wheel’: Randomly select different options, eg to choose a topic or select a ‘volunteer’
• Drum roll: A dramatic pause before a big reveal

Sharing your presentation

The following guide shows how to share your Mentimeter presentation during a session so that students can take part. It is possible to use Mentimeter to create content slides as well as question slides to deliver an entire presentation within Mentimeter.  Alternatively, a PowerPoint presentation can be used and you can switch between PowerPoint and an internet browser to show the Mentimeter question slides and results. Although Mentimeter makes a PowerPoint plug-in available to allow it to be used from within a PowerPoint presentation, this is not supported at the University. 

Displaying results

When you display a Mentimeter presentation, the results can be displayed on the screen. You can select to hide the responses to questions until students have answered, or you can display the results from the beginning and show how the ‘story’ changes as answers are received. It is also possible to share a link to the live results of your presentation so that it can be accessed afterwards, or so that students can display this on their own computers, for example in remote teaching sessions.

Dealing with responses

The results can be used to guide feedback or further teaching, to stimulate activities, or to allow students to compare their responses with others. From the teacher perspective, further insight can be gained by downloading the responses as an excel file. This shows (anonymously) how individual students responded to the questions and can highlight common misconceptions. In the webinar ‘Sharing Learning and Teaching practices with Mentimeter’, Nick Wood (Department of Chemistry) showed how he uses the ratings and scales question types to gain insight into student understanding of taught content and to adjust teaching accordingly. Screenshots from his talk are shown below and you can listen to him talking through these slides by following the link to the recording of his presentation (UoY Panopto log in required).

Using keyboard shortcuts

When presenting in Mentimeter, you can use keyboard shortcuts to manage presentation navigation and options. Shortcuts include:
H: Hide or show results – you can hide results until all students have responded to prevent bias and then show them when you are ready
I: Show voting instructions and QR code – useful for pauses in a presentation or for a minimally-disruptive reminder of how to connect to a Menti session.
T: Show test votes – You can use this before a session to try out a question and its options by viewing automated responses.
K: The meta-shortcut – brings up a list of all available keyboard shortcuts.

Asynchronous use of Mentimeter

You can also change your Mentimeter presentation settings to make a presentation available for students to respond asynchronously in their own time by switching from ‘Presenter pace’ to ‘audience pace’ and obtaining the link to share the presentation and results with students. This makes all the question types and features available in Mentimeter available to support independent study between live sessions.

If you would like to use a University of York style for your Mentimeter slides you can do so by selecting ‘Themes’ at the top of the presentation editing interface.

Then select one of the University of York themes. These have been designed for high contrast using the University brand colour scheme as of 2023.

You can also select from other Mentimeter theme options or create your own theme.  Themes also allow you to change the font used in your presentations.

By default, Mentimeter is completely anonymous and a common concern from teaching staff is that students may not use open text options appropriately.  The following post offers strategies for dealing with this focused on:

• Minimising the likelihood of inappropriate or offensive comments being added by attending to the learning environment and developing shared 'rules of engagement' for anonymous open text.
• Setting up the mentimeter environment so that if any inappropriate or offensive comments are added, negative impacts can be prevented or minimised.

Using open text responses safely and dealing with inappropriate or offensive posts.