Sessions are live events you or another instructor leads while your learners follow. Sessions are mobile-responsive so that learners can join from any browser, tablet, or mobile device. Sessions are created from Poll Decks in My Library. You must be logged into EchoPoll to create a slide.

Start Your Session

The easiest way to start a Session and add it to your Course is from My Library via an existing Poll Deck.

1. From the My Library tab, pick the Poll Deck you want to use and click the Start button, as shown in the figure below.
   

   The New Session modal opens.

2. Click the Show Settings link to show the Session Settings.
3. Click the Course Record dropdown and select a Course from the list, as shown in the figure below. Start typing to search for a course.
   

   Optionally, start the session without a course.

   
4. Select one option from the following.
   • Participation Settings - Choose from Course roster, Entire organization, Guests (sign-in), Guests (public).
   • Join Code - Choose from a Random or previously reserved join code.
   • Web Conferencing - Select None, GoToMeeting, or Zoom from the dropdown. These must be integrated and enabled by an admin before starting a Session.
5. Under Session Settings, turn on or off the toggles for Show results, Show whiteboard, Show chart, and Show leaderboard, as shown in the figure above. You can also configure these defaults on the Preferences tab of your Account Settings.
   
   • Show results - When toggled on, learners will have access to the session report once the session is complete, including their answers to questions and the correct answers. When toggled off, learners will see the session in the My Accomplishments section, but they won't have access to the detailed question information.
   • Show chart - When toggled on, learners will see the results from all participants and any charts or graphs of those results displayed on their device once a question is closed. When toggled off, learners will not see any question information on their device after the question is closed; only the instructor's screen will display this information.
   • Show whiteboard - When toggled on, instructors can use the whiteboard controls on the right side of the screen to illustrate concepts, work through problems or equations, or display information in real-time.
   • Show leaderboard - When toggled on, learners see the participant ranking for the session.
6. Click the Start button.
   

   The Session information is displayed.

7. Click Join Link to copy the Session URL to your clipboard. Provide the Join Link or the Join Code identified in the figure below to the Learners.
8. Click Controls to open the Session controls.
   • Slides - Allows you to see all of the slides in your Poll Deck for the Session.
   • People - Shows all people connected to the Session.
   • Chat - Displays the Session chat.
   • Settings - Turn on the following settings for the Session.
     
     • Session - Turn on the Auto-start timer when a question slide is displayed.
     • Presentation View - Allows you to turn on Show QR code in lobby and / or Show QR code on all slides. This allows participants to use their device camera to join the Session.
     • General Slide Settings - Turn on Show results as percent, Show correct answers, and / or Show points.
     • Slide Settings - Choose a question slide from the dropdown and turn on Enable anonymous for that question.
9. Click Start Session, as shown in the figure below.

The first slide from your Poll Deck is displayed.

Conduct Your Session

1. If the first slide is a Presentation slide, use the Right Arrow button in the toolbar at the bottom to navigate to the next slide, as shown in the figure below.
2. Click the Play button in the toolbar to open the question for responses, as shown in the figure below.
   
   

   Learners can now respond to the question.

3. When all answers have been received, click the Stop button.
4. Click the Right Arrow button in the toolbar to move to the next question.
5. Repeat these steps for the rest of the questions in the Poll Deck.
6. When all questions have been answered, click the Exit button, as shown in the figure below.
7. In the End Session window that appears, click the End button.
   

   The Session Name defaults to the name of the Poll Deck and the time that you started the Session, as shown in the figure below. Optionally, you can rename your Session. 

8. The Session is saved. You may click the link to Review Results or close the tab.

Instructor View Options

There are two primary views when conducting a session in EchoPoll:

1. Presentation View: For use when presenting from your screen during a session.
2. Control View: For use when users are not viewing your screen during a session.

The two views share many features but do have some different options. We will discuss both below.

Presentation View

The Presentation View provides a toolbar at the bottom of the screen to manage your session, while dedicating most of your screen real estate to the presentation itself. This makes the view great if you share your screen while presenting your session. We'll go over each of the toolbar options here.

Control View Button

This switches you from the Presentation View to the Control View. We'll cover the options within that view in the Control View section below.

Keyboard Shortcuts

We've also provided keyboard shortcuts for the toolbar. Here they are for reference (pressing K in EchoPoll will open them for you as well):

Slides

Clicking the Slides button will open a slide navigation pane on the left of your screen in presentation view:

Settings

Clicking this displays Session control settings on the left of your screen in presentation view.

• Auto-start timer: If turned on, a timer will auto-start for any polls.
• Show QR code in lobby: If turned on, a QR code will be visible in the lobby for learners to join your session.
• Show QR code on all slides: If turned on, a QR code will be visible on the top right of your screen in presentation view for learners to join your session.
• Show results as percent: If turned on, this shows results in a 0-100% format.
• Show correct answers: If turned on, it displays the correct answer after closing a poll.
• Show points: If turned on, it displays to learners their point score.
• Enable anonymous: You can turn on anonymous responses per slide.

People

If turned on, this displays a list of attendees by name on the left side of your screen in presentation view.

QR Code

Clicking this displays Session control settings on the left of your screen in presentation view.

Slide Controls

These are contextual, depending on what slide you are on, but allow for advancing slides, reversing slides, and opening or closing polls.

Timer

This is available when a polling slide is open. A countdown timer will be displayed at the top of your screen if pressed. When the time ends, the polling question will close automatically.

Chart Type

Clicking this lets you select the chart you want to use to display poll results. For Hotspot questions, it changes to Hide Results.

Your options are:

• No Chart: Show no poll results at all.
• Answer Input: Show the responses with the question.
• Bar: Show a bar chart that aggregates responses.
• Pie: Show a pie chart that aggregates responses.
• Word Cloud: Show a word cloud that aggregates responses.

Whiteboard

Click this to bring up drawing controls on the right side of your screen. This allows you to draw directly on whatever slide you have open in presentation view to help explain topics and amaze your learners with your artistic skills.

Leaderboard

Gamify your learning experience with some exciting competition.

Control View

The control view contains many of the same options as the presentation view, but the screen is optimized for presenting without sharing your screen. You can see your current and next slide and access the Control View options.

• Slides - Allows you to see all of the slides in your Poll Deck for the Session.
• People - Shows all people connected to the Session.
• Chat - Displays the Session chat.
• Settings - Turn on the following settings for the Session.
  
  • Session - Turn on the Auto-start timer when a question slide is displayed.
  • Presentation View - Allows you to turn on Show QR code in lobby and / or Show QR code on all slides. This allows participants to use their device camera to join the Session.
  • General Slide Settings - Turn on Show results as percent, Show correct answers, and / or Show points.
  • Slide Settings - Choose a question slide from the dropdown and turn on Enable anonymous for that question.