A live poll in the middle of a teaching session tells you whether the concept landed — in real time, before you move on. It's faster and more honest than asking "any questions?" Mentimeter turns a passive live session into a conversation: you pose a question, your students respond from their phones, and the results appear on screen in real time — word clouds forming, bar charts climbing, open answers scrolling in.
What you’ll walk away with:
- Live polls that reveal student understanding in real time during any session
- Word clouds, scales, and open-ended responses that surface what students actually think
- A discussion-ready format where poll results become your teaching agenda
- Exportable data showing how understanding changes across sessions
Why Mentimeter works for live course sessions
The core challenge with live teaching is participation. In most sessions, three or four confident students answer every question while the rest stay silent. That silence doesn't mean they're disengaged — it often means they're unsure, introverted, or worried about saying the wrong thing in front of the group.
Mentimeter sidesteps this by making responses anonymous and simultaneous. Every student answers at the same time on their own device, and no one's name is attached to their response. In my experience running hundreds of workshops and teaching at UNC, this changes the quality of input dramatically.
The real-time display is what makes it useful for teaching rather than just data collection. When you ask "What's the biggest challenge you're facing in Module 3?" and a word cloud builds live on screen, everyone can see the common themes instantly. That visual becomes your agenda for the next fifteen minutes. You're no longer guessing what your students need — they just told you, in aggregate, in about twenty seconds.
Mentimeter supports several response types that matter for course creators: multiple choice for quick knowledge checks, word clouds for surfacing themes, scales for gauging confidence or agreement, quizzes with scored answers for review sessions, and open-ended text for collecting longer thoughts. Mentimeter's feature overview walks through each type in detail.
Step-by-step: Running live polls with Mentimeter
Create a presentation with poll slides
Sign up at mentimeter.com (free, no credit card needed) and click "New Presentation." Think of each presentation as a slide deck where every slide is an interactive question rather than a static visual. Name it something tied to your session — "Module 4: Mid-Course Check-In" is more useful than "My Polls" when you have a library of presentations.
Add your first slide by clicking the plus button and choosing a question type. For a first session, start with just one or two questions. You can always add more once you see how your students respond.
Choose your poll types
Mentimeter offers several interactive slide types, and each serves a different purpose in a course session:
- Multiple choice — best for quick comprehension checks. "Which of these three approaches would you try first?" gives you an instant read on whether students understood the material.
- Word cloud — best for surfacing themes. Ask "What one word describes your experience with Module 2?" and common answers appear larger as more people submit the same word.
- Open-ended — best for collecting detailed responses. "What question do you still have about today's topic?" lets students type a full sentence.
- Scales — best for gauging confidence or agreement. "On a scale of 1-5, how confident are you applying this technique?" shows a distribution that reveals whether you need to spend more time on a concept.
- Quiz — best for review sessions. Questions have correct answers and students earn points. The competitive element energizes end-of-module reviews.
A word cloud at the start of a session to surface questions, a scale in the middle to check understanding, and a multiple choice at the end to confirm takeaways — that's a solid three-question arc for any live session.
Share the join code during your session
When you present, Mentimeter displays a join code and the URL menti.com at the top of the screen. Tell your students to open menti.com on their phone or in a browser tab and enter the code. No app download, no account creation, no login — they type the code and they're in. In a Zoom session, share your Mentimeter screen and give students ten seconds to join before you advance to the first question.
Display results in real time
As students submit responses, the results animate on screen. Bar charts grow, word clouds expand, text answers scroll in. This is the moment that changes the energy of a session. Instead of one person talking, everyone is contributing simultaneously. Pause for a few seconds after responses stabilize before commenting on what you see — that pause builds anticipation and gives late responders time to submit.
Use results to guide discussion
This is where Mentimeter earns its value. The poll results aren't an end in themselves — they're a launching pad for deeper conversation. If a word cloud shows "overwhelmed" appearing large, address it directly: "Several of you said overwhelmed. Let's talk about what specifically feels like too much." If a scale shows the group split between 2s and 5s, that's a signal to pair confident students with those who need support.
The best live instructors I've observed treat poll results as a real-time diagnostic. You're not just asking questions to fill time — you're adjusting what you teach next based on what your students just told you.
Export data after the session
After your session, go to your Mentimeter dashboard and download the results as a PDF or Excel file. The export includes every response, timestamped and organized by question. This data is useful for two things: identifying topics that need follow-up in a future session, and tracking how student confidence or understanding changes across sessions if you ask similar questions each time.
Course creator tips
Ask one question at a time
Resist the temptation to load five poll questions into a single session. Each question should lead to a moment of discussion. One well-chosen question that sparks a ten-minute conversation is more valuable than five questions that you rush through without debriefing. Start with one question per session, then add more as you get comfortable with the flow.
Use polls to open, not just to check
Most instructors use polls as a quiz — "Did you understand the material?" That's useful, but polls are even better as conversation starters. Try opening a session with a word cloud: "What's on your mind about this week's topic?" The responses set the agenda. You're teaching what your students actually want to learn, not what you assumed they needed.
Name your presentations clearly
After a few weeks of live sessions, you'll have a library of Mentimeter presentations. Name them with your course name and session number: "Coaching Foundations — Session 6 Check-In." You can reuse and adapt presentations across cohorts, which saves setup time when you run the course again.
Limitations
Free plan limits you to 2 questions per presentation
Mentimeter's free plan limits you to 2 question slides per presentation. You can create unlimited presentations, so one workaround is to make a separate presentation per question — but switching between presentations mid-session is clunky. If you regularly need more than two questions, the Basic plan at $11.99 per month (billed annually) removes the limit.
Requires internet for all participants
All participants need an internet connection to respond, which means Mentimeter works well for Zoom sessions and most in-person workshops but can be unreliable in settings with poor Wi-Fi. If connectivity is a concern, a simpler approach — raising hands, typing in the Zoom chat — may be more reliable.
A polling tool, not a discussion tool
Mentimeter collects responses but doesn't facilitate threaded conversation or peer-to-peer interaction. For ongoing student discussion outside of live sessions, you'll want a dedicated space within your course platform or a community tool.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Mentimeter with Zoom or other video conferencing tools?
Yes. Share your Mentimeter presentation on screen during a Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams call. Students open menti.com on their phone or a second browser tab and enter the join code. Their responses appear on the shared screen in real time. No integration or plugin is required — it works through any screen share.
How many poll questions can I use on the free plan?
The free plan allows up to 2 question slides per presentation, with unlimited audience size. You can create as many presentations as you want, each with 2 questions. For sessions that need more questions, the Basic paid plan starts at $11.99 per month (billed annually) and removes the question limit.
Are student responses in Mentimeter anonymous?
By default, yes. Students don't need to create an account or enter their name to respond. This encourages honest participation, especially on sensitive topics. If you need to identify respondents, paid plans offer the option to require names, but for most course sessions anonymous polling produces better engagement and more candid answers.
Related guides
- How to Run Live Course Sessions Using Zoom — set up your live session before adding polls
- How to Create Course Surveys Using Google Forms — async surveys for pre- and post-course feedback
- How to Generate Discussion Prompts Using ChatGPT — create better questions to ask in your polls
- How to Create Your First Online Course — complete guide from idea to launch
From polls to a complete course experience
Live polling works best when it's woven into a structured course — not tacked on as an afterthought. The sessions where students feel most engaged are the ones where every element connects: the lesson content sets up the question, the poll surfaces what students actually think, and the discussion that follows addresses what matters most to them.
Ruzuku gives you a single place to host your course content, run live sessions, and build the community that keeps students coming back. Upload your lessons, schedule your live calls, and add activities that tie everything together — no transaction fees, no tech juggling. Start building your course on Ruzuku for free.