Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning

Qualtrics is a powerful online survey tool that allows users to build surveys, distribute surveys, and analyze responses from one convenient online location.

Qualtrics is best for

• Surveying
• Polls
• Student, customer and employee feedback
• Creating and distributing sign up forms
• Online classes and meetings:
  • Assessment
  • Setting meeting/class dates and times

Limitations

• Qualtrics is a very large company, and can therefore sometimes be more complicated than necessary. 

Accessibility 

Creators of Content

While there is an Accessibility checker available in the tool, do not rely on it to ensure your content is Accessible. There are certain questions types that you'll need to avoid:

• Slider
• Rank Order
• Matrix tables - drag and drop, dropdown list, multiple answer. 
• Hot Spot
• Heat Map
• And more Qualtrics accessibility information

The Accessibility checker will also not be able to see if you've properly captioned your videos or supplied a script. It also doesn't check for alt tags on your images. 

• Qualtrics Accessibility, University of Colorado Boulder
• Alternatives to Inaccessible Question Types

Users of Assistive Technology

The survey creator side is currently inaccessible to screen reader users. Currently, it is inaccessible to

• People with impaired vision
• Those who rely on keyboard to navigate a computer
• People who rely on screen readers

People using assistive technology would not be able to create a survey independently based on Qualtric's current functionality. 

However, people using assistive technology can participate on the survey-taking sides as long as the creators stay away from inaccessible question types. 

• Assistive Technology Users and Qualtrics, California State University

Support

• Qualtrics is available to all student, staff, and faculty at the University of Guelph. 
• Qualtrics is supported by the Data Resource Centre at the library. 
• Book an appointment to get more help with Qualtrics. 

Resources

Google Forms is a survey administration app, compatible with all leading browsers, that is included in the Google Drive office suite. Forms feature all of the collaboration and sharing features found in Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Google Forms is an open-source tool and free for anyone to use.

Google Forms is best for

• Online quizzes and evaluation
• Meetings:
  • Employee, student, or customer feedback
  • Setting meeting dates and times
• Polls
• Survey experiments

Limitations

• Limited design customization 
• Must have internet connection

Accessibility 

Users of Assistive Technology

You need to turn on Google's Screen Reader support in order for this tool to be accessible:

• To turn on screen reader support, press Control + Alt + z (on Windows) or Command + Option +z (on Mac)

This will stay on and can be used across Google Suite..

• Edit forms with a screen reader, Google Support
• Google - Accessibility of Google Forms, University of Colorado Boulder

Resources

Poll Everywhere transforms one-way presentations into a lively conversation. Using smartphones and similar devices, participants can submit live responses to polls and activities. Create and present multiple choice, Q&A, word clouds, rank order, trivia, and more with the web app, mobile presenter app, or through slide-ware integration: PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote.

With a free account, users have access to:

• Creating unlimited questions
• Maximum audience size of 25
• Support center, FAQ, and Webinar tutorials

Poll Everywhere is best for

• Measuring engagement and feedback.
• Employee and student reviews and collaboration. 
• Online classes:
  • Taking attendance.
  • Giving quizzes. 
• Adding polls to existing presentations. 
• Word clouds and brainstorming.

Limitations

• Not accommodating to people looking to perform complex polling or experimental designs: 
  • Simple polling and question structure.

Accessibility

• Supports keyboard navigation
• All images and videos provided by Poll Everywhere have a text-based equivalent. 
• Presenters can enable alt text for participants using screen readers to respond to multiple choice, ranking or clickable images. 
• Accessible structural hierarchy
• Poll Everywhere mobile application meets sequencing standards; however, the presenter facing content is not always optimized for sequencing. 

Source: Poll Everywhere Accessibility Standards

Resources

Slido is a Q&A and poling platform that is supported by CCS. Slido is available to instructors at the University of Guelph via Webex. Slido also integrates with PowerPoint, Google Slides and YouTube Live Videos. When integration isn't possible, the Slido Switcher allows you to switch between Slido and the presentation. 

Slido is best for

• creating engaging and interactive virtual meetings, workshops or classes 
• tracking and gauging participant understanding
• creating surveys to use in-class
• provides analytics of student engagement, participaton, trends and questions

Limitations

• Slido isn't supported in breakout sessions
• Integration with Teams and Zoom is not yet available. 

Accessibility

• Slido only works with VoiceOver in Apple devices, and ChromeVox extension in Google Chrome.
• The primary functionalities of Slido are keyboard accessible

Source: Accessibility at Slido

Support

• Slido is supported by CCS, and you can register for an account by visiting sli.do and choose Log in > Log in with Webex.

Mentimeter is an easy-to-use presentation software where you can create fun and interactive presentations. This tool helps make your events, presentations, lectures, and workshops innovative and memorable.

With a free account, users have access to:

• Unlimited audience size
• All question types
• Up to two questions and five quiz questions per presentation.

Mentimeter is best for

• Interactive presentations and activities:
  • Polls.
  • Virtual real-time Quizzes.
• Visualizing knowledge acquisition. 
• Class, team or employee virtual collaboration.
• Measuring progress:
  • Examining and addressing feedback. 
• Exporting presentation data

Limitations

• Can be a tedious process for beginners.
• Free version can limit the amount of users able to join.

Accessibility 

Mentimeter appears to meet most Accessibility standards; however, there are some things that are not met that mostly relate to images, or questions related to images. 

• Wordclouds are visual and there is no alternative format provided. You can export the file as an excel document, which is accessible. 
• You cannot add alt text to an image that you've uploaded. 
• Creators will need to make sure to meet colour contrast requirements. 

For more information about accessibility, see the Mentimeter Accessibility Conformance Report. 

Resources