Accessibility statement

Mentimeter at the University of York

Mentimeter is our University-supported web-based polling tool. It can be used by staff and students to add interactivity to presentations, allowing you to display a range of question types in your browser. Participants can respond to these questions using an internet-enabled phone, laptop or tablet by scanning a QR code or entering a ‘session code’ at http://www.menti.com. You can then access or share these responses during and after the presentation. 

In one word, why do you think Mentimeter may be useful for you? Responses in order of frequency: interactive, engagement, fun, feedback, inclusion, creative, active, informative, exciting, thought-provoking, responsive, atmosphere, Dialogue, insight, Support, Chunks, q_and_a, Attention, Break, Partcipatory Measurable, Knowledge, Attention, Evaluation, Reassurance, Identify misunderstanding

Logging in to Mentimeter

You can create your university Mentimeter account from the following link:

University of York Joining link

This will take you to the University single-sign on page to allow you to log in. The first time you log in you will be sent a ‘Confirm SSO for your Mentimeter account’ email containing a link to follow to activate your account. 

Once you have activated your account, you can log in by following the same link above.

If you don't have the joining link to hand, you can also navigate to the Mentimeter homepage and select ‘Log-in’. Then choose ‘log in with SSO’ which will take you to the ‘single sign on’ page. Add ‘University of York’ under ‘Your organization’s name’ and select the ‘Authenticate’ button. This will take you to the University single-sign on page to allow you to log on (Duo authentication required).

Using Mentimeter

Getting started and creating a Mentimeter presentation

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

You can use a variety of question types within your Mentimeter presentations and guidance is available on a number of these below, with links to the relevant help pages.  You can also use Mentimeter to build content slides which make it possible to present an entire presentation using Mentimeter if you wish.  Mentimeter content slides can include headings, bullet points, images and videos, and there is instant access to a library of copyright free images and gifs.  You can also use ready-made templates for slides such as ‘spin the wheel’, drum-roll, timer slides, quotes and numbers.  Although content slides do not include the options available in PowerPoint or Google Slides for complex layouts and elements such as transitions and animations, a number of staff have provided feedback that they value the use of Mentimeter content slides for simplifying the layout of presentations and ensuring accessibility.  You can also use Mentimeter tools such as Q&A and emoji reactions as well as mentimote (see the 'presenting' guidance below for more information) throughout your presentation.

See the following page if you would like to find out more about content slides in Mentimeter.

Question types: Closed (Students select from options presented to them)

 

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:

MCQ responses in bar chart format.  Question: In which of the following contexts have you used Mentimeter / polling? Responses: Lectures/presentations (15) Smaller workshop/seminar sessions (18) Online synchronous sessions, e.g. using Zoom (21) Asynchronous use between sessions (e.g. in the VLE or emailed to participants before a session) (2) Other(s) 8

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

MCQ Results (same question as above) displayed in the form of a pie chart, donut (ringed pie chart) and dots (one small dot for each response shown in a group next to each option

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:

Question: What are the main main areas that cause poor results in our projects? Ranked responses are shown with the areas alongside. Rank 1: No clear objective, 2: People do not respect deadlines, 3: Scope creep, 4: People do not cooperate, 5: Time spent fire-fighting, 6: Too much time in meetings, 7: Communication, 8: Other.

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:

Question: How well do these methods support your learning.  Average responses on a scale of 1 to 10 - bad to good - are:  Active learning: 8.9, Lectures: 7.1, Peer-to-peer problem solving: 5.3, Reading: 5.6, Writing: 5.9.  The breakdown for active learning shows that 1 person chose 10, 4 chose 9, and 2 chose 8.

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.

Question: Do you feel you have met this weeks learning outcomes - Responses shown for each of three learning outcomes as the average on a scale from 1 - not confident to 5 - very confident.  Each has a curve showing the distribution of responses around the mean.

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.

Graph showing 9 sessions on the x axis and a scale from 0 - not confident to 5 - very confident on the y-axis.  For each of 5 learning outcomes, a line shows changes in confidence ratings across the sessions.

Question types: Open (Students add text-based responses)

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.

In one word, why do you think Mentimeter may be useful for you? Responses in order of frequency: interactive, engagement, fun, feedback, inclusion, creative, active, informative, exciting, thought-provoking, responsive

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:

Slide with the following question:  What is the IV in this study?  Approximately 12 short answers are shown of approximately 10 words length each

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:

Slide with instructions: Paste in your answers - include your table number - to parts a, b, and c of the experimental design question.  Six answers of approximately 50 words each are displayed

You can switch on voting on open text responses, making this ideal for a brainstorming or prioritising session, allowing everyone to contribute ideas and then to vote on the contributions made. 

To switch on voting, you just need to create an “Open Ended” question slide and add your question as normal in the question field under the ‘Content’ options. Then select the ‘Enable voting on responses’ option and add the required number of votes to allocate to each participant under ‘Votes per participant’.

When you share your presentation with students during a session and present the question slide, participants can provide open responses as normal and these can be displayed either immediately as they come in, or hidden until a time of your choosing (Shortcut key ‘H’ to hide and show responses).

When you are satisfied with the number of open responses received, you can press ‘enter’ to begin the voting (making sure to click on the Mentimeter presentation screen first to ensure it is in focus).  Until this point participants who have submitted their responses will see a message telling them that the presentation is not yet open for votes.

After opening the voting, the message ‘voting in progress will appear on the screen and students will see a list of all open responses. When they select an option, it will be marked with a tick (they can select the option again to de-select).  A message at the bottom of the screen tells them how many votes they have left and, once they have made their selections, they can press the ‘Submit votes’ button.

Once you have received the number of votes you are expecting, you can press enter again to show the voting results (again, making sure to click on the Mentimeter presentation screen first to ensure it is in focus).  The results will be shown on the screen and also on the devices used by participants ordered by the number of votes from most to least.

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.

 

Question types: Students can anonymously share questions and reactions during a presentation

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 (Mentimote provides a useful option for this - see below) or you can share a link to allow moderation by a colleague. 

Reactions

You can enable 'reactions' to allow students to select 'emojis' during a presentation which will display on the screen at the bottom of a slide (options include: heart, question mark, thumbs up, thumbs down, and cat). To enable or disable specific emojis, select 'Interactivity' and select the emojis to include.

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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.

Other question types and the slide library

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.

Question: Where was your last job based - A map of the UK and the world is shown with responses shown as dots on these maps

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).

Question: Rate these Coca-cola products in the BCG Martix. Responses show as a correlation between market share and growth rate with Powerade in the mid points for both.

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.
    Question: In Feb 2022, the average price of a pint of milk in the UK was 49p.  Adjusted for inflation, what was the average price in 1972?  A graph shows the number of responses with the correct answer - 70p - highlighted.
  • 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

Using University templates and changing the style of your slides

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.

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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.

Thumbnails from the Mentimeter 'themes' interface showing 9 x themes available with different colour combinations.

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.

Presenting with Mentimeter

Log onto the console computer, open a browser window, and log into your Mentimeter account (remember your phone as Duo authentication is needed to log into Mentimeter). Open your Mentimeter presentation and select ‘Present’ to open it in presentation mode in full screen.

Giving joining instructions

Your participants will need to join your Mentimeter presentation to be able to respond (either by using a QR code or by inserting the joining code at menti.com). You can use the following options to make this a smooth process:

Add a Mentimeter instructions slide and make this the first slide students see when you open your Mentimeter presentation. This provides a code that students can insert at menti.com to join, and also a QR code for anyone who is able to use them on their device. The instructions screen slide is a particularly useful option the first time you use Mentimeter with participants as the instructions are presented very prominently.

Decorative

Include a quick ‘warmer’ or a question at the beginning to give your participants the chance to join Menti on their device and check that they can respond successfully (this can be a fun, socially-oriented question or something connected to the subject matter). You can include this after the instructions slide or alternatively use the ‘i’ shortcut key or press the ‘show/hide instructions’ button on the toolbar to display joining instructions on any slide. 

Decorative

You can also use joining instructions on an introductory content slide to give a reminder to participants on how to join. This shows the instructions in a less intrusive way than the instructions slide, allowing you to include instructions in a more context-specific welcome slide which can be particularly useful for use with participants who are already familiar with Mentimeter. 

Decorative

Once your participants have joined the presentation, they should not need to re-join to respond to your subsequent questions so long as these are in a single Mentimeter presentation. Should a participant become disconnected for any reason, you can display the joining instructions again on any slide as shown above.

Controlling your presentation with 'Mentimote'

If you would like to use your phone or tablet as a remote control device to control your presentation, you can simultaneously log onto Mentimeter using a browser on the device, open the same presentation and, instead of choosing ‘Present’, select ‘Open Mentimote’. The Mentimote interface will open for your presentation. The ‘Present’ options show thumbnails of your presentation slides with arrows allowing you to move between slides. The Q&A options allow you to switch on the Q&A function (if it is not switched on already) to allow your participants to ask you questions during the presentation. You can then view questions received, bring them up on the presentation screen and mark them as answered using the device. Finally, the ‘More’ options allow you to carry out a wide range of functions including showing and hiding results, opening and closing voting, showing the voting instructions and QR code, and blanking the screen. 

See Mentimeter’s Mentimote page for instructions and an introductory video if you would like to use this.

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.

Dealing with results

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).

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Sharing your presentation and results

You can share a presentation link with your participants using ‘Share – Results’, change the permissions to ‘Anyone with the link can access’ and ‘copy link’. 

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Further instructions on this with screenshots are available on Mentimeter’s share a presentation link page.

If you share the presentation link with participants, they will be able to use it to open the presentation and navigate independently through the slides and view any existing results.

If you are sharing the presentation online, for example in the VLE, you can add this link (see the following guidance page for information on how to add links in the VLE if needed).

You can also copy an embed code which can be used to display the presentation in a frame on the page. The following embedding content guidance page shows you how to do this in the VLE. 

When embedding the presentation on a VLE page, it is necessary to provide the link so that it can be viewed in full screen if needed. This can be added above the embed by choosing the ‘add content options’ and using the text editing tools to add a hyperlink (see example below).

Embedded Mentimeter presentation within the VLE

If you would like to make the presentation available to participants offline, you can also export the presentation as a pdf, images, or as an Excel file and share the resulting files with them (e.g. by uploading the files into the VLE). As with all digital resources, it is essential to consider accessibility. For example, if you are uploading images or pdfs, make sure that you also provide the Excel file as a more accessible alternative.

Integrating Mentimeter questions into presentations

A common question for Mentimeter users is how best to integrate the use of Mentimeter question slides with content slides, especially when using PowerPoint or Google Slides. The guide linked below takes you through the three main options available for this and covers the steps needed before, during and after your presentation. 

NB. Mentimeter makes an integration with PowerPoint available via office 365, but this is not currently supported at the University. 

There are no official Google Slides ‘add-ons’ for this so please do not install any add-ons that promise to integrate Mentimeter with Google Slides. These add-ons are unlikely to be effective and may constitute a security risk.

This guide begins with a summary of each option designed to help you choose the option that will work best for your needs. This includes advantages and disadvantages, and an estimated difficulty level for each.  There are then step-by-step instructions on each of the three options covering preparation, presenting and sharing. 

Integrating Mentimeter questions into presentations

Asynchronous use of Mentimeter

You can 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.

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

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.

Case studies

Staff in a range of different departments are using Mentimeter in a variety of ways to support active and inclusive learning.  If you would like to explore some examples, please see the following resource.  You can browse through video vignettes with staff talking about their practices, and you can also filter the examples by purpose / context, by question type or by department (UoY login required).

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UoY staff video vignettes: Using Mentimeter to support active and inclusive learning and teaching

Purposes for use include:

  • Diagnostics: Finding out where students are at or what they already know at the beginning of a session. Adapting teaching during a session in response to their needs.
  • Knowledge checking: Providing opportunities for students to test their understanding by responding to questions or engaging in competitive quiz activities.  Providing feedback or further teaching based on responses.
  • Promoting active learning and discussion: Using polls as a trigger for learning or for activities involving comparison or discussion.  Sharing outputs and providing efficient feedback.
  • Engagement: Providing a means for students to take part anonymously.  Eliciting questions during teaching sessions.
  • Stimulating reflection and feedback: Polls to engage students with questions about their own learning and action planning, or to seek feedback on teaching.
  • Community building and inclusive learning: Providing opportunities for ‘getting to know you’ activities or to gauge feelings and preferences on learning.

A range of examples were also shared in the following blog post following an experience-sharing webinar in Spring 2022:

Active and inclusive learning and teaching: A key role for Mentimeter classroom polling.

We are always keen to highlight and share effective practices with polling tools for learning and teaching and to develop our current case studies related to Electronic Voting Systems. If you have examples you would like to share please contact Rob Shaw, Educational Adviser (rob.shaw@york.ac.uk).

Training and resources

If you would like to take part in hands-on activities to get started with Mentimeter or support your development, Mentimeter host regular live webinars with recordings available on demand. These include regular ‘Mentimeter for Educators’ sessions as well as more general webinars.

There are also recordings from webinars held here at the University to support the introduction of Mentimeter and targeted at beginners and more experienced staff.  You can view the recordings and resources from the following links:

The ‘Mentimeter academy’ also offers a range of on-demand courses for those with a range of existing knowledge and experience, from complete beginner’s to advanced users.

The latest offerings include:

You can access these short courses at your own pace, engage with example questions and presentations, and copy these resources into your own Mentimeter account to adapt and use with your own students. 

Communication channels

The following communication groups are open for all staff to join if they would like to receive updates about the use of Mentimeter at the University of York. These will include, for example, updates about the Mentimeter service, information about training and resources, requests for feedback, and invitations to take part in experience sharing activities.

For email updates only: Mentimeter Users Google Group (please log in to UoY Google before clicking on the link)

Slack channel: # mentimeter-york.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss Mentimeter, please contact Rob Shaw, Educational Adviser (rob.shaw@york.ac.uk).

Accessibility

Mentimeter have published the following accessibility statement incorporating an analysis of how the tool meets the standards of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It applies to the voting site ‘menti.com’ rather than the editing interface on ‘mentimeter.com’. Please contact us if you would like to discuss the accessibility of Mentimeter further.