PPLS Learning Tech Blog: Mentimeter
Category:
Interactive presentation app which allows participants to interact with synchronous sessions using their own devices.
Availability:
In-browser: www.Mentimeter.com (presenter), www.Menti.com (participants)
Installation:
No need to install — Mentimeter runs in your web browser. Participants interact with the presentation using the web browser on their computers, tablets or phones at www.menti.com
Accessibility:
Users can add alt text to media. All actions are keyboard operable. Accessibility statement available at https://www.mentimeter.com/accessibility . Consider participants’ accessibility requirements before using features such as timed quizzes.
Uses:
Presentations, feedback questionnaires, informal and formal events, online and in-person (and hybrid) quizzes and teaching.
What is it?
Like PowerPoint but with real-time interactivity. Mentimeter allows a presenter to add quizzes and questions into a presentation. Anyone watching the presentation can then participate in real-time using the browser on their phone, tablet or computer to answer quiz questions or provide written feedback.
Mentimeter can be set to ‘presenter pace’ or ‘audience pace’. Think of these as synchronous and asynchronous. In ‘audience pace’, a questionnaire can be compiled and linked to for users to browse at their own pace. In this version, Mentimeter works a lot like Microsoft or Google Forms, providing a sequential questionnaire with a wide array of feedback types. This has been successfully used, for example, for mid-term feedback questionnaires for students.
However, Mentimeter really shines in the synchronous ‘presenter pace’. This can be used for a standard presentation with just one slide for Q&A at the end, or for a fully interactive event such as a pub quiz.
How can I use it?
Create your presentation, then use your browser to show it to participants via a presentation screen (in-person events) or using Screen Share in a video calling app such as Zoom, Teams or Collaborate. Direct your participants to www.menti.com (note this is different to the website you will be using which is www.mentimeter.com) and ask them to input the code which will automatically appear on your presentation slides into their devices.
You can sign up for a free Mentimeter account at www.mentimeter.com. A free account is quite limited — but there are still enough features to create interesting and useful short presentations.
For longer presentations and to unlock some features you will need a license. The college is currently running Mentimeter as a pilot to evaluate whether to provide ongoing support for Mentimeter. You can request access to a Mentimeter licence via the CAHSS SharePoint at this link.
Speak to the PPLS Learning Technology team if you are interested in gaining access to a full Mentimeter license.
Features:
As well as ‘Content’ slides containing text, images, bullet points or video, there are two main types of slides: question slides, and quiz slides.
Question slides can be used to elicit various types of data from your audience, and display the results in real time:
- Open ended: You simply ask a question, and users can submit answers via www.menti.com
- Multiple choice: participants can pick an answer from a list of options.
- Word Cloud: participants enter an answer using free text, and the presentation will display a ‘word cloud’ made up of the answers, with the most frequently submitted answers in the biggest font.
- Q&A: for when you want users to submit questions, answers or feedback anonymously.
- Scale: participants rate statements on a scale. Use for evaluations.
- Ranking: participants rank items in order of preference. The presentation will display which options are most popular amongst all participants.
There are also Advanced question types such as forms and 2 or 4-axis ranking grids. Another good feature is ‘segmentation’, where you can combine the results of one question with the results of another using colour coding. Read more about segmentation here.
Quiz slides can be used for creating a competitive quiz. Mentimeter will automatically place an updated leaderboard after every quiz slide — you can take these updates out if you don’t want to display a leaderboard until the end of the quiz.
There are two types of quiz slide:
- Select answer: participants choose an answer from a list you have prepared
- Type answer: participants must type an answer. They will only be awarded points if they type exactly what you have set as the correct answer. You can set up to 5 answers per quiz slide, so it’s a good idea to cover for common variants and spelling mistakes (if the answer was ‘Hannah Arendt’, you could set ‘Hannah Arendt’, ‘Arendt’, ‘Hanna Arendt’ ‘Hanna Arent’ and ‘Hannah Arent’ as your five answers)
You can choose whether to give participants more points for answering quickly. This keeps everyone on their toes and can be a great way to encourage engagement, providing it’s an informal quiz!
To get started:
Go to www.mentimeter.com in your web browser. Even if you don’t have a university account you can still create a free account which will allow you to use most of the key features (although with a limit to the number of interactive slides per presentation)
Why should I use it?
Mentimeter is extremely user-friendly. It doesn’t have the range of features of a more powerful presentation creation app like PowerPoint, but the advantage of this is that you can put together a slick, fully interactive presentation very quickly. But the key advantage to Mentimeter is audience interactivity; use Mentimeter to get students out of their shells, to add a competitive edge to a quiz, and to add an element of ‘liveness’ to a presentation.
Top Tip
In hybrid events or teaching where some participants are viewing offline and some online, Mentimeter can place all participants on an equal footing; members of the physical audience can use their mobile devices and online viewers their computer or mobile device, and the Mentimeter presentation will not distinguish between them.
Where can I find it?
There are tutorials and demonstrations available on the Mentimeter YouTube channel.
Disclaimer:
While Mentimeter is licensed by the University, the PPLS Learning Technology team are not responsible for any inappropriate, offensive or illegal content viewed or accessed through the tools and products reviewed. Certain Mentimeter question types involve user feedback appearing on the presenter’s slides: participants could potentially submit offensive names or question answers which will then appear on the presentation.