This blog is part of a series on Teams. For more articles, check back often.
Written: 16/12/2019 | Updated: N/A
Like many people I know, Polly has been my go-to-app for polling in Teams. Why? Because it is easy to setup and Polls are effective in a number of collaboration scenarios – opinions, feedback, choice, sentiment. In a learning context, they are great for formative assessment and driving incremental improvements to the learning. However, imagine my surprise when I recently discovered that Forms can also do polls – something which I either missed given the avalanche of new functionality this year or the fact it has always been there which is an astounding oversight on my part. Either way, like Teams I’m a big advocate of Forms – I use it a ton these days and am enjoying seeing it mature. On it’s current trajectory – assuming it continues its maturation – I anticipate that it’ll displace the use of Polly long-term – particularly for people like me who almost always take Microsoft apps over third party. Of course, whether it builds on the quick poll outlined here remains to be seen. You know me. I very much hope it does.
WHY WOULD WE DO IT?
- For quick polling the Team
- For formative assessment and feedback
- For use of a native Microsoft Polling app
PREREQUISITES
Users need Teams and Forms licences – usually via Office/Microsoft 365. Forms needs to be enabled within the organisation app permissions policy and users permitted to add it as an app
——–
HOW – IN TEAMS CHATS
1.) In the Team, go to the Channel. In the message bar, select ellipsis (…)
2.) Search for and select Forms
3.) Complete the Poll questions and answers and select Next
4.) Review the Poll and select Send
5.) Both the Poll and the response cards are posted
6.) The quick poll and responses are viewable in My Forms at https://forms.office.com
This functionality can also be used in private or group chats following the steps above
HOW – IN MEETINGS
1.) In the meeting, select Chat button
2.) Select Ellipsis (…)
3.) Search for and select Forms
4.) Complete the Poll questions and answers and select Next
5.) Review the Poll and select Send
6.) Both the Poll and the response cards are posted to the meeting chat
7.) The quick poll and responses are viewable in My Forms at https://forms.office.com
THOUGHTS ON POLLS WITH FORMS
Our work here is done.
The basic functionality of quick polls using Forms is really simple and really easy to add to a Teams Chat, a personal chat, a group chat or a meeting. Personally, I like simple and will be using it going forward to use when I train others.
However, I imagine there will need to be a number of adds for wider adoption including
- The ability to send polls at specific times
- The ability to use different question types
- The ability to not share results with the audience
It would also be good to be able:
- To modify Form settings, as these have been locked
- To add an existing form as you can only currently create a new poll
- To use images, giphy’s etc in the poll which would make more interactive Polls
So it is probably fair to say that Forms is unlikely to be disrupting Polly any time soon until the functionality gets richer. However, if all you need is a simple quick poll of the Team for statement-style questions then it is very effective and will increase the ROI of both Forms and your Microsoft 365 investment.
