PARTICIPANT RESPONSE AND POLLING SYSTEM

• US 20090241033A1
• Filed: 03/23/2009
• Published: 09/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Florida Gulf Coast University (State University System of Florida)
• Original Assignee: Florida Gulf Coast University (State University System of Florida)
• Inventors: MUJTABA, Mustafa
• Application Number:
  US12/408,943
• Publication Number:
  US 20090241033A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/752
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/12 different stations being capable of presenting different information simultaneously G09B5/14 takes precedence

Abstract

A system and methods for polling a group and automatically gathering and analyzing responses from the group. The system and methods provide an interactive web-based service that allows participants (e.g., students, meeting attendees, conference attendees) to interact with a user (e.g., a teacher, an instructor, a presenter, a lecturer) via a cell phone or other device in order to efficiently and effectively provide feedback to the user. Such feedback enables the user to modify or clarify his/her presentation or instruction in real time to address any misunderstandings of the participants.

Claims

1. An interactive web-based polling and response system to facilitate participant/user interaction, said system comprising:

means for providing questions to a group of participants in real time;

means for gathering responses to said questions from said group of participants in real time; and

means for processing and analyzing said responses in real time and presenting results of said analyzing to a user in real time.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein questions are provided during a live session on the fly and responses processed upon receipt.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein questions are uploaded to the system prior to start of interaction and the system automatically advances through the questions upon selection by the user.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein a user is directed to assign an identifier (ID) to each participant to save results of submitted responses.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the participant devices are web-enabled devices selected from a group consisting of cell phones, PDA'"'"'s, laptops, computers and smart phones.

6. The system as in claim 1, wherein the means for providing questions to a group of participants in real time is a web site on a global information system, and the means for gathering responses to said questions from said group of participants in real time is receiving email from the participants at the website.

7. The system as in claim 1, wherein the participants are at different locations geographically and each participant may view group results via the website.

8. The system as in claim 1, wherein the system provides coordinator controls which allow a user to perform coordinator editing of the results.

9. The system as in claim 1, wherein the participant uses their cell phone to text message a response to a question to a specific e-mail address assigned to the session.

10. The system as in claim 1, wherein the participant devices comprise an e-commerce application.

11. The system as in claim 1, wherein the presentation of results is made anonymously or in association with a unique ID associated with each participant.

12. The system as in claim 1, wherein results are downloaded to a spreadsheet or word processor.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein upon the user determining that a present question should be restated, and before processing of any responses from the participants, the user may select to delete any submitted responses and proceed to generate a restated question.

14. An interactive web-based polling and response system to facilitate participant/user interaction, said system comprising a website for providing questions to a group of participants in real time, the group of participants using communication devices selected from a group consisting of cell phones, PDAs, smart phones and computers, the participant devices communicating to a website, a processor associated with the website for gathering and analyzing responses to said questions from said group of participants in real time, and presenting results of said processor analyzing to a user in real time.

15. A method to facilitate participant/user interaction, said method comprising:

providing questions to a group of participants in real time;

gathering responses to said questions from said group of participants in real time via a web site on a global information system, wherein gathering responses to said questions from said group of participants in real time is performed by receiving email from the participants at the website; and

analyzing said responses in real time and presenting results of said analyzing to a user in real time.