Sessions are live events that you or another instructor lead while your learners follow along. Sessions are mobile-responsive, so learners can join from any browser, tablet, or mobile device. Sessions are created from Poll Decks in your Library. Your Poll Decks are, in turn, made up of Resources in your Library.

Starting Your Session

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

1. Log into EchoPoll as an Instructor.
2. 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 window opens.

3. Click the Show Settings link to bring up the Session Settings.
4. Click the dropdown under Course Record and select a Course from the list, as shown in the figure below. You can also search for a course.
   

   You may also start the session without a course.

   
5. Choose a Participation Setting from the dropdown. as shown in the figure below. You can choose from Course Roster, Entire Organization, Guests (sign-in), Guests (public).
6. Under Session Settings, enable or disable the toggles for Show results, Show whiteboard, Show chart, and Show leaderboard, as shown in the figure above. These defaults can be configured in your Preferences.
7. Click the Start button.
   

   The Session information is displayed.

8. Click Join Link. The Session URL is copied to your clipboard. Provide the Join Link to the Learners. Optionally, you can also provide the code from the upper-right corner of the screen, as shown in the figure below.
9. Click Start Session, as shown in the figure above. The first slide from your Poll Deck displayed.

Conducting 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 simply close the tab.

Instructor View Options

There are 2 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 2 views share many features, but do have some different options. We will discuss both below.

Presentation View

The Presentation View gives you a toolbar at the bottom of the screen to manage your session while dedicating the majority of your screen real estate to the presentation itself. This makes the view great if you're sharing 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 provided keyboard shortcuts for the toolbar as well. 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 enabled, a timer will auto-start for any polls.
• Show QR Code: If enabled, 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 enabled, this shows results in a 0-100% format.
• Show correct answers: If enabled, shows the correct answer after closing a poll.
• Show points: If enabled, shows learners their point score. 
• Enable anonymous: You can enable anonymous responses per slide if you desire.

People

If enabled, this will show a list of attendees, by name, on the left-hand side 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 you have a polling slide open. If pressed, a countdown timer will be displayed at the top of your screen. When the time ends, the polling question will close automatically.

Chart Type

Clicking this lets you select the type of chart you want to use to display poll results.

Your options are:

• No Chart: Show no poll results at all.
• Answer Input: Just 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.

Show Media

You can optionally show media on a polling slide when in presentation view. Students will see it on their screens in EchoPoll regardless.

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 you have in presentation view, but the screen is optimize for you presenting while not sharing your screen. You can see your current and next slide as well as getting access to a few extra options.

Extra Options

These options are only available in the control view.

Chat

This lets you follow and interact with your learners in the Session chat.

Responses

This lets you see who has responded to a polling slide.

Present

Switch to the presentation view.