Poll Everywhere Free Campus-Wide Thanks to Successful Partnership

The audience response system Poll Everywhere is now free for students, faculty, and staff at Stanford, as a result of a successful partnership between the Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching & Learning (VPTL) and University IT (UIT).

“It was incredibly gratifying to support VPTL’s mission,” said UIT Cloud Vendor Manager Doug Chalmers. “We worked in unison to do something important for the university community.”

VPTL decided to pursue an enterprise agreement following a successful pilot of the tool, which supports interactive classroom discussion and integrates with Canvas, Stanford’s learning management system.

VPTL wanted to offer Poll Everywhere across campus, replacing a handful of group and individual licenses, and asked UIT to help them secure an enterprise agreement that fit their budget constraints, explained Michael Rouan, VPTL’s Senior Director of Academic Technology Innovation.

Help with a complex process

The UIT Vendor Management team worked with VPTL to evaluate competing tools and to conduct benchmarking and research to ensure the best deal for the university. The challenge was to make sure VPTL was buying a product that was secure, compliant, and affordable, explained Chalmers.

“To check off all those boxes takes time,” he said. “There were lots of people to consult with to make sure we made the best choices.”

The process included a product evaluation by Stanford’s Online Accessibility Program, single sign-on help from UIT’s Technical Services team, an evaluation from the Information Security Office, discussions with the Procurement Department, and input from many others across campus.  

Chalmers also worked to consolidate existing accounts and negotiated costs with Poll Everywhere.

“University IT stuck with us through the duration and made sure we got it right,” said Rouan. “I’m thrilled that VPTL was able to fund it.”

Benefits campuswide

The new enterprise agreement simplifies administration of the tool, while meeting VPTL’s budget and business requirements. Because Poll Everywhere is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product, the new agreement also moved the needle on cloud adoption across campus, a top Business Affairs goal this year.

Learn More

Learn how UIT can help you move to the cloud at the Cloud Vendor Management website. To use Poll Everywhere at Stanford, visit the VPTL Poll Everywhere webpage.