Due to the audience joker in the TV show "Who wants to be a millionaire?" the technology of ad-hoc voting became known. You can also implement this technology in your courses and lectures.

Votingo allows for the possibility of polling the knowledge status of the students during the face-to-face session in a quick, uncomplicated and anonymous process. Thereby lecturers can react in a targeted, didactic way to the pretty clear needs that are addressed. The results are immediately available and can be presented during the course of the session. The students receive a quick and continuous feedback so that misunderstandings and comprehension difficulties can be constructively and precisely addressed. Votingo thereby supports the focus on the learners during face-to-face sessions and can thereby help to improve the learning success of the students.

Lecturers have to be connected to the VPN for using the system; for students this is not valid.

The program can already be used in the test phase and will probably be activated at the start of the winter semester 2020/21.

If you are interested in a test account, then please contact: support@cedis.fu-berlin.de.

Implementation forms

With Votingo lecturers can survey students during face-to-face sessions and cross-location teaching scenarios.

The surveys are anonymous and mainly serve to give feedback as to the learning progression and to give reasons for what will happen next in the seminar; e.g. that phases with peer instruction are implemented.

Practical examples at the Freie Universität

The application is still being tested. As soon as an official release is at hand we will start collecting examples from the various departments of the university.

A sample survey in order to get to know the user interface can be found here: https://votingo.cedis.fu-berlin.de/EG1YAM

Usage

In Votingo one can find the following sections:

Questions
Surveys
Events
Results

This list, as it were, also specifies the timetable for the creation of classroom response scenarios. At the start there is the setting up of a question pool. Out of this pool surveys can be compiled that the participants should answer in the virtual space given when they are present in courses.

The set-up of the program envisages that every course on campus should receive its counterpart in Votingo. Thereby access for the participants remains the same over the course of an entire semester. The Votingo courses are then interlinked with individual questions or compiled surveys.

The votes polled are collected for each and every course and can be downloaded as a zip-packed .xlsx file.

Data protection and terms of use

The use of Votingo is possible on a cost-free basis for all lecturers of the Freie Universität Berlin. You can register at votingo.cedis.fu-berlin.de.
The use of Votingo is currently only doable within the network of the Freie Universität Berlin. if you would like to use the application outside of campus then please activate the VPN client in the ZEDAT portal.
If you have any legal questions on data protection, data safety, protection of intellectual property rights etc. that crop up during the design phase of a course supported by e-learning, the usage of existing material or the implementation of tools then please contact the Office of the General Counsel of the Freie Universität Berlin.

Further information

Voting systems

Support offered by CeDiS

Consulting services for the implementation of digital solutions in teaching: The Center for Digital Systems (CeDiS) has extensive experience of many years when it comes to the implementation of digital media and systems within the fields of teaching, learning and research. We offer a wide variety of consulting services on the implementation of these tools and systems within the entire academic scope and especially at Freie Universität Berlin.
Training courses and workshops: For lecturers at Freie Universität Berlin (professors, employees, tutors) as well as lecturers of other universities CeDiS offers training courses and workshops on the topic of teaching and learning with digital media. These course enable participants to implement online elements within their own sphere of teaching.
The Executive Board of the Freie Universität supports e-learning initiatives: With the e-learning funding program financial resources are provided to lecturers that enrich and improve their courses quality-wise by implementing technological and media-related support. All of the academic staff teaching, the lecturers or even the institutions of the Freie Universität - without the Charité-Universitätsmedizin - can be supported within this program.