FAQs for instructors using Polling @ McGill

McGill’s TurningPoint license expired on August 25, 2022. Access to the software is no longer available. However, any questions you built in PowerPoint using TurningPoint remain in PowerPoint. Items specifically within TurningPoint, such as TurningPoint Reports (.tpz files) or Anywhere Polling, are no longer available. 

No import or export function between the two systems is available. Questions need to be manually copied and pasted into Slido. You may also export your PowerPoint questions in a Rich Text Format (.rtf) file where it might be easier to copy the relevant questions and answers. 

With the PowerPoint integration, you can insert Slido slides and run Slido activities in order. If you require more flexibility, such as toggling between questions and answers; viewing; hiding and locking poll results; or jumping to different question polls, you can run Slido from an internet browser or Slido Switcher. 

Not yet. This feature is heavily requested by customers and Slido is planning on developing this integration. In the meantime, Mac users can: 

• Use Slido on an internet browser. You can toggle between your presentation and Slido by dragging three fingers on the trackpad. See a demonstration here. 

• Use Slido Switcher and your phone. Slido Switcher is an application that runs on your computer and allows you to control the presentation from your phone. You can toggle between your presentation and Slido while away from the podium; view responses as they come in on your device before displaying them to students; and look at the questions and answers while students are responding to polls. 

Many of the features are similar (view the comparison table). These points may be of particular interest:

• Slido is fully web-based. It allows for polling to happen before, during, and after class.

  • In class, students answer using their device via a QR or event code.

  • Outside class, students access via a web link or myCourses.

• Slido can run sessions anonymously, so students do not have to login.
  By default, students login with their McGill credentials as with other systems (e.g., Zoom, myCourses), allowing you to identify the names of participants, such as those asking questions in the Q&A and tracking participation. 

Yes, so long as students sign into the Slido session. Slido provides a spreadsheet export that includes students’ names, email addresses, and participation. An Excel spreadsheet that can combine both the student classlist from the myCourses Gradebook and this Slido export is available. The results can then be imported back into the Gradebook.  Visit Import polling @ McGill participation results into myCourses to access the spreadsheet.