Getting started with Mentimeter
Getting started with Mentimeter
Table of contents
2. Why did we choose it as our audience response system? [edit]
Mentimeter
We have a campus-wide licence for Mentimeter. This means that it can be used by all staff and students.
Go to the Mentimeter joining page and register with your QMUL email address.
If you teach on QMUL modules but do not have a QMUL email address, please contact us on telt@qmul.ac.uk.
Please note that if you use Mentimeter, you must follow the safe usage guidelines to ensure that the anonymous, open nature of the service is a safe space for students.
What is Mentimeter? [edit]
Mentimeter is a web-based audience response system, as well as a presentational tool. At their most basic, these systems are the technology equivalent of asking the audience to raise their hands in response to a question. In this case, the audience use their smartphones, tablets or laptops to respond to questions.
This means you can ask your audience to respond in a variety of different ways, and visualise their responses as bar charts, pie charts or word clouds. They are an effective way to promote engagement, especially with large audiences. While most usually thought about in the context of face-to-face teaching, Mentimeter is also a great way to inject some interactivity into your online sessions, no matter what webinar software you are using.
Why did we choose it as our audience response system? [edit]
There is a very large number of systems like Mentimeter around now. You may have heard of systems like TurningPoint, Polleverywhere, Vevox and Socrative, and you may have used them. There are many others. We were aware that Mentimeter already had a relatively large user base at QMUL - the free version of the system was being used by a number of people across the institution. We drew on this existing user base and conducted a Mentimeter trial during the 2018/19 academic year.
The results of this trial showed that Mentimeter met the requirements of most of the staff who used it and it proved very easy for people to learn and use. We therefore asked the university to provide funding for the ongoing use of Mentimeter and we were given funding for 50 licenses.
During the COVID-19 pandemic we received funding to purchase a campus-wide licence and have since renewed this annually, which means that all staff and students at QMUL can make use of the system.
