Beginner’s guide to Mentimeter

Mentimeter – Faculty of Humanities

Contents
1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 2
2. Getting started ..................................................................................................................................... 3
3. Questions and Output .......................................................................................................................... 4
3.1 Multiple Choice .............................................................................................................................. 4
3.2 Scales ............................................................................................................................................ 5
3.3 Open ended................................................................................................................................... 6
3.4 100 points ...................................................................................................................................... 7
3.5 Dual axis ........................................................................................................................................ 8
3.6 Who will win?................................................................................................................................. 9
4. Sidebar .............................................................................................................................................. 10
5. Voting................................................................................................................................................. 11
6. Additional options .............................................................................................................................. 12
6.1 Exporting the results (Excel and Blackboard) ......................................................................... 12
6.2 PowerPoint .............................................................................................................................. 12
7. Concluding ......................................................................................................................................... 13

Author: Roosje Peeters

Teaching assistant Blackboard Helpdesk

Do you have any further questions after reading

Expertise Centre Online learning (ECOLe) this manual? Please do not hesitate to contact
Faculty of Humanities the Blackboard Helpdesk (contact information
below)

Address
Faculty of Humanities/IFZ Phone: 071-527 2773 of 071-527 8034
Lipsius Building Email: ecole@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Cleveringaplaats 1 Website: FGW > Medewerkers > ICT-
Room 1.35 voorzieningen > Ontdek-de-tools > Mentimeter
1. Introduction

Mentimeter is an interaction tool that can be used to have students actively participate in your
lectures. It allows students to anonymously give their opinions on questions (in forms such as
multiple-choice, open-ended or scales) that you can prepare in advance. This allows you to check
how they think about a subject or if they have understood your explanation. In this way it is possible
to have a more focused discussion. Mentimeter does not require any voting devices, and there are
no downloads. All you need is their website and participants with a smartphone, laptop or tablet.

Mentimeter shows the answers to the questions in real time and visualizes them in easy-on-the-eye
tables or charts. Besides lectures, Mentimeter can also be used for other events such as workshops,
meetings and research projects. You can use it to test people’s expectations, to have them rate
solutions for a problem or to let them (anonymously) submit objections to a research proposal. There
are no downloads and you don’t have to install anything. You will only need the Mentimeter website,
and your participants can easily use their smartphone, tablet or laptop to vote.

Research has shown that the use of “active student responding” methods and audience response
systems, such as Mentimeter, are useful in actively engaging the student. The anonymity of the tool
increases engagement, because it allows people, who would normally be reluctant to do so, to give
their opinion on a subject. In this way, more people will answer your questions. Studies have proven
that students using anonymous response systems show a significantly higher participation rate than
students using normal response methods (such as hand-raising). Research reports that students felt
that such tools improved their engagement in the class, made it more enjoyable and helped the
instructor attend to their needs. 1 The biggest advantages that are named, are the influence on the
classroom environment (attention and participation), learning (interaction, discussion and quality of
learning) and assessment (feedback). 2

If you are interested in Mentimeter, you may find an introduction video on their website:
https://www.mentimeter.com/. It is possible to create an account for free, which you can use to test
out the options.

If you are interested in using Mentimeter for your lectures, workshops or meetings, please contact us
for further information.

Note: Web-browsers
For an optimal performance, please use:
- Chrome; version 3.0 or later
- Firefox; version 13 or later
- Safari; version 5.0 or later
- Internet Explorer; version 9.0 or later

1
C.R. Graham, T.R. Tripp, L. Seawricht and G.L. Joeckel, ‘Empowering or compelling reluctant participators
using audience response systems’, Active Learning in Higher Education, 8 (2007) 233-258; J.R. Stowell and J.M.
Nelson, ‘Benefits of electronic audience response systems on student participation, learning and emotion’,
Teaching of Psychology, 34:4 (2007) 253-258.
2
R.H. Kay and A. LeSage, ‘Examining the benefits and challenges of using audience response systems: a review
of the literature’, Computers & Education, 53 (2009) 819-827.

2
2. Getting started

To get started, please contact us and ask for an account. If you would
like to try it out first, you can also sign up for a free account on the
website, with which you can create two questions (only multiple-
choice type questions).

Once you log in to www.mentimeter.com, you will start on the

homepage. If you would like, you could start with an introduction
tour in Mentimeter. This tour will also assist you in creating your first
event. You can find this in the menu on the left side of your screen.
1. Navigate to the ‘Help’ button in the menu.
2. Click ‘Show intro tour’.
3. Click ‘Let’s go!’, and continue through the steps with ‘Next’ or
by completing the action mentioned in the tour, such as
clicking on ‘New event’.

It is of course also possible to create an event by yourself.

1. Click on the button ‘New event’:

2. Change the title of the event by clicking on the pencil symbol
next to the current title:
3. Optional: change the theme of the event to the ‘Leiden
University’-theme, or a different theme. You may do so at the
bottom of the page:

4. Optional: you can choose to set the ‘Voting pace’ to ‘Survey

mode’, which will allow the participants to vote at their own
pace. Leaving it at ‘Presenter mode’ (which is the default setting) will let your participants
vote at your rate. They will only be able to answer a question if you show that question on
the screen.

5. Create a question:
a. For Multiple-choice, see 3.1.
b. For Scales, see 3.2.
c. For Open-ended, see 3.3.
d. For 100-points, see 3.4.
e. For Dual-axis, see 3.5.
f. For Who-will-win?, see 3.6.

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3. Questions and Output

3.1 Multiple Choice

With a multiple choice question, you can give your audience several alternatives to vote on. You can
add as many alternatives as you like, but we recommend to not use too many, as this will make it
harder to read and decide for your participants.

To create a multiple choice question, you will have to:

1. Enter the question that you would like to ask. This will be the title as well.
2. Choose the option ‘Multiple choice’ at step 2.
3. Enter the alternatives that you would like to have your audience vote on. You can add more
alternatives with the button ‘Add alternatives’. You can select and drag your alternatives to
change the order with the button . You can delete an alternative with .
4. After completing your question and the options, you can add new questions with the button

Votes and results

The standard settings will only allow one vote per participant. However, there is an extra option to
allow more than one vote: you can decide for yourself how many votes you will allow your
participants to cast by checking the ‘Enable Multiple Choice (Checkboxes)’ box, and selecting and
dragging the green circle.

After your participants have cast their votes, the results

will show up like this:

For more information on voting, see chapter 5 of this

manual.

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3.2 Scales
‘Scales’-type questions allow participants to rate statements on a scale from 0 to 5. You can add as
many statements as you like, but we recommend to not use too many, as this will make it harder to
read and decide for your participants.

To create a ‘Scales’-type question, you will have to:

1. Choose the option ‘Scales’ at step 1.
2. Enter the question that you would like to ask. This will be the title as well.
3. Enter the statements that you would like to have your audience vote on. You can add more
statements with the button ‘Add statement’. You can select and drag your statements to
change the order with the button . You can delete a statement with .
4. To make things more clear for your participants, you can also enter labels to explain the
values 0 and 5 on the scale. These will be depending on your question.
5. After completing your question and the options, you can add new questions with the button

Results
After your participants have cast their
votes, the results will show up like this:

For more information on voting, see

chapter 5 of this manual.

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3.3 Open ended
‘Open ended’-type questions will allow your participants to (anonymously) give their opinion on a
question you would like to ask them. They can freely type in their answers, but only up to 140
characters.

To create an ‘Open ended’-type question, you will have to:

1. Choose the option ‘Open Ended’ at step 1.
2. Enter the question that you would like to ask. This will be the title as well.
3. Chose the layout you would like to show the answers in. Hovering your cursor over the
question marks will show a description of each layout.
4. After completing your question and the options, you can add new questions with the button

Votes and results

The standard settings will only allow one vote per participant. However, you may choose to allow
more than one vote by checking the ‘Allow voters to vote more than once’ box.

After your participants have entered their

answers, the results will show up like this:

You can also decide to show the answers as a

‘word cloud’:

For more information on voting, see chapter

5 of this manual.

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3.4 100 points
The ‘100 points’-type question will allow your participants to distribute 100 points among the
alternatives you added. You can add as many alternatives as you like, but we recommend to not use
too many, as this will make it harder to read and decide for your participants.

To create a ‘100 points’-type question, you will have to:

1. Choose the option ‘100 points’ at step 1.
2. Enter the question that you would like to ask. This will be the title as well.
3. Enter the alternatives that you would like to have your audience vote on. You can add more
alternatives with the button ‘Add statement’. You can select and drag your alternatives to
change the order with the button . You can delete an alternative with .
4. After completing your question and the options, you can add new questions with the button

Results
After your participants have cast their votes, the
results will show up like this:

The most popular alternative will be shown on

top. Ratings will be shown in percentages.

For more information on voting, see chapter 5 of

this manual.

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3.5 Dual axis
A ‘dual axis’-type question will let you have your participants rate items in two dimensions. The
results are then displayed in an x-y-grid. This will make the differences between the items very visible
and allow comparison.

To create a ‘dual axis’-type question, you will have to:

1. Choose the option ‘Dual axis’ at step 1.
2. Enter the question that you would like to ask. This will be the title as well.
3. Enter the items that you would like to have your audience vote on. You can add more items
with the button ‘Add statement’. You can select and drag your items to change the order
with the button . You can delete an item with .
4. Enter the dimensions that you would like your participants to rate the items on. Decide
which dimension goes on the y-axis, and which one on the x-axis. You also need to enter
labels to describe the low and high values. Please note that if you don’t fill out these fields,
the question will not function.
5. After completing your question and the options, you can add new questions with the button

Results
After your participants have cast their votes, the
results will show up like this:

Results will be shown in averages.

For more information on voting, see chapter 5 of

this manual.

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3.6 Who will win?

A ‘Who will win?’-type question will give each participant one vote to cast on one of the alternatives
you give them. The winning alternative is only revealed when you choose to.

To create a ‘dual axis’-type question, you will have to:

1. Choose the option ‘Who will win?’ at step 1.
2. Enter the question that you would like to ask. This will be the title as well.
3. Enter the alternatives that you would like to have your audience vote on. You can add more
alternatives with the button ‘Add alternative’. You can select and drag your alternatives to
change the order with the button . You can delete an alternative with .
4. After completing your question and the options, you can add new questions with the button

Results
After your participants have cast their votes, or if you decide to
end the voting, you can show the winner with the button:

The results will show up like this:

For more information on voting, see

chapter 5 of this manual.

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4. Sidebar

The sidebar opens once you move your cursor to the left
end of your screen.

Fullscreen: the button allows you to switch to full

screen mode.
Hide result: the button allows you to hide the results
from your participants, for instance to only show them
after everyone has voted. Clicking it again (it now looks like
this: ) will show them again.
Close voting: the button will close the voting session.
Clicking it again (it now looks like this: ) will re-open it.
Change grid: this option is only available for the dual-axis-
type questions. Clicking the button will open a list of
ways in which the answers of your participants can be
showed.
Question from results: this option is only available for the
open-ended-type questions. Once there are several
answers, you can click the button . This will create a
new question (of the 100 points-type) based on the
answers given. Participants may distribute 100 points on
these answers.
Segmentation: the button will segment the answers based on an answer on a previous multiple
choice question.
Trends: the button will show you trends based on previous voting sessions.
Ask again: the button will let you re-ask your question, whilst saving the previous answers. In
this way, you could for instance ask some part of your audience to vote, ask the question again, ask
the other part of the audience to vote, and compare the results with the ‘Trends’-button.
Share: the button will give you a link to the page where participants can cast their votes, and a
link to the results.
Edit: the button will take you back to the page where you can edit the questions.
Events: the button will take you back to the homepage, where you can find an overview of all
your events.
Show QR code for voting: this will give you a QR-code that participants can scan with their phone
(they will need to have a QR-scanner installed to do so), which sends them directly to the voting
page.
Show testdata: the button will give you fake answers to your questions, so you may see what
the possible results could look like.
Delete results: the button will delete all your results. Please note that they won’t be saved.

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5. Voting

When you have finished adding questions, you can start the
questionnaire with the button . Clicking on the button
next to a question will start the questionnaire from that
question onward.

Mentimeter is very easy in use, and not just for the creator of a
survey. Voting itself is easy as well. To do so your participants
will only need to have a smartphone, tablet or laptop with them.
With those, they can go to the website www.menti.com
(formerly www.govote.at), where they will see the screen at the
right:

Your participants then need to enter the code which is showing

at the top of your presentation screen:

This will take them to the first question (see picture at the
bottom right).

There is no limitation on the number of participants. However,

please note that it is possible that very large audiences (> 250)
might overload the Wi-Fi-connection and thereby make it hard or
impossible to vote.

After all your participants have casted

their vote, they will see the following
screen:
You will then need to click the arrow
at the right side of your screen to
continue to the next question. If the participant subsequently
clicks ‘Refresh’, the new question will show itself.

The answers and your questions are never deleted. However, the
code that is used to start the voting will be deleted after your
event hasn’t been used in 45 days.

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6. Additional options

6.1 Exporting the results (Excel and Blackboard)

It is possible to export your results after your participants have completed the questionnaire.

For instance, you can export them to Excel by clicking on the button in the
sidebar. The results can then be analyzed or turned into a chart for the next lecture or meeting.

You can also export the results via the ‘Share’-button mentioned before ( ). This button will give
you a link that you can use to share your questions and results in a ‘view only’-mode. It also gives you
a link that you can use to share the results on a blog or webpage such as Blackboard. This could be
useful if you used Mentimeter to discuss a topic that is relevant for an exam. You can embed the
questions and results in Blackboard in the following way:
1. Go to your Blackboard course, and click ‘Build content’, and next ‘Item’.
2. You might need to click the ‘Show more’-button to find the ‘HTML’-button.

3. Clicking the ‘HTML’-button will open a screen. Copy and paste the link (the third option, to
share results on a blog or webpage) into this screen and click ‘Update’.
4. Complete the ‘Item’ as you would normally and submit it.
5. You will now see that your first question and the answers show on your Blackboard page.
You can use the arrow on the right to continue to the other questions.

6.2 PowerPoint
Mentimeter offers the option to use it directly in your PowerPoint presentation. To do so you will
need to download a plug-in (which only runs with Internet Explorer 9 and Windows PowerPoint 2013
or PowerPoint Online). You will need an Office 365 account to download it. It does not support Mac-
systems, Keynote or Google Slides.

Please note that there is a high chance that the Anti-virus software at university computers blocks
the plug-in. We therefore recommend using Mentimeter in your web-browser. If you open your
PowerPoint as well as your web-browser with Mentimeter, you can easily switch between the two
screens using the keyboard shortcut Alt and Tab.

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7. Concluding

We hope to have shown here that Mentimeter can be used in an easy and effective way to engage
your students and/or colleagues in a class or meeting. To conclude we would like to give you some
general recommendations:
o Explain beforehand how Mentimeter works (especially that it is anonymous), why you will be
using it and whether or not you will use the answers for something else. This could help if
participants are uncomfortable using Mentimeter.
o Try to immediately discuss the questions and especially the given answers. Only then will
your audience feel like they’re actively participating in the lecture/meeting, and only then
will you have a more focused discussion. If you don’t go into the questions and answers,
there will be no real value to using Mentimeter and it won’t interest your audience after the
first few times.
o Refrain from using too many questions during a lecture or meeting. Mentimeter will allow
you to add as many questions as you like, but your audience might get bored after a while.
We recommend using a maximum of about ten questions (depending of course on how long
the lecture/meeting will take).
o Refrain from giving too many alternatives for answers. A few distinct alternatives will give
you a better idea of the audiences opinion than several similar alternatives. It also helps your
participants with making their choice.
o The questions will grab the attention and interest of your audience, so use this to your
advantage. We recommend distributing the questions evenly across the length of your
lecture or meeting. In this way you will not just grab their attention but keep it.
o Please take note of the fact that the first time you use Mentimeter, it will probably be
distracting your audience since it’s new to them. With the first question it could also take a
while before everyone’s all set up to start answering (for instance if they first have to
connect to the Wi-Fi). It would be best to take this into account in advance.

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