Instapol is an easy to use response system using widely available "off-the-shelf" devices and browser-based software. It is made up of 3 different parts:
Presenter (optional), used to display the question and response choices through an overhead projector. Control Center, used to create
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and control polling, and Response Card, used by the audience to respond to a poll. Each product is described in detail below: PresenterPresenter is a simple "display" application that you can use to show the question and the answer choice to the audience. It can run as a desktop application or as an applet inside a browser, and is designed to be fast and easy to use. If you need more advanced features, such as including pictures or mathematical symbols/equations in your questions, you can use any other application such as Microsoft's PowerPoint or OpenOffice's Impress.
Control CenterCC is the desktop application through which you (as the presenter) can create polls and collects results. In a common use case, you would have a PowerPoint presentation with some slides containing questions with a list of possible answers. Using the control center, you would then specify the parameters for each question, such as the number of options, the right option and the duration for which to run the poll. In addition, you would specify the list of participants allowed the take part in the poll. Each participant (using the Response Card) is assigned a unique ID, which is checked before accepting the response. Only participants that you explicitly give permission to answer will have their response accepted and tallied in the final results.
Once you've created the list of questions and participants, you can save the data for later use. This data (plus the responses) is what we call a "session". Now, at the time of the actual presentation, all you have to do is open up the control center and load the data saved earlier. If you use the Control Center mobile version, you can control your presentation (such as moving forward or backward), launch the session and start/stop polls, all wirelessly, using you mobile phone. The desktop application communicates with our server on the internet to collect responses and finally displays the results in a chart overlaying your presentation at the end of the poll. The session is updated to show the responses to the question being polled. Once you're finished, you can save the session again which now contains the responses of the audience to the questions specified earlier.
Note that the Control Center is oblivious to the application used to display the questions. Thus, it works not only with PowerPoint, but with any application you want. All you have to do is set the parameters of the questions beforehand, and launch the Control Center to run in the background.
The Control Center is a versatile and non-intrusive application with a wide variety of features, including:
Run as a pre-installed desktop application or on-demand as an applet, inside a browser. Load/Save sessions, containing questions, participants list and responses, all in one place. Generate intelligent reports and charts, summarizing the data. Use the remote server to collect responses, or run one locally if needed. Launch and control sessions using a wireless bluetooth connection to the Control Center mobile version, running on a mobile phone. Response PadThe Response Pad is used by the audience to respond to the poll by keying in the number of the option they want to choose. There are two ways in which the user could respond:
Using a browser: Simply go to http://www.instapol.com/respond in a browser. This will load an applet which you can use to log-in by entering your details. Once you've logged in, a numeric keypad-like interface will be displayed. You can register you response by clicking on the button of your choice. A small icon on the display will provide visual feedback once the response is received and acknowledged. To use this method, you need a Java-enabled browser and an internet connection. Using your mobile phone: Download and install the Response Card mobile version on your mobile phone. As in the browser-based method, you first enter your details to log in to the system. If your phone supports Wifi and you're connected to the internet, you can use it to connect. Alternatively, you can choose to send your response via SMS. In that case, each time you choose an option, a text message with your response is sent to our server and eventually to the Control Center. A small icon on the display will provide visual feedback once the response is received and acknowledged. To use this method, you need a Java-enabled mobile phone with Wifi or SMS support. [Less]
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