What is Vevox?
Vevox is a student response tool that enables colleagues to create live polls, quizzes, word clouds and anonymous Q&A activities to increase student participation and gather real-time student responses during teaching.
How can I use Vevox?
Vevox is most effective as a live teaching tool that helps make student thinking visible. Used well, it can spark curiosity, increase participation, and create opportunities for students to actively engage with concepts rather than passively receive information. Think of Vevox not as a way to test students, but as a way to start conversations about learning.
Start with Multiple Choice Questions
Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are the most common and powerful way to use Vevox during teaching. Use MCQs to:
- Check understanding
- Reveal misconceptions
- Make predictions
- Apply knowledge to scenarios
- Stimulate discussion
Design questions that promote thinking
Consider the level of thinking you want students to undertake. Aim to move beyond simple recall, and instead use questions that require students to apply, analyse or evaluate (Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001).
| Level of Thinking | Example Question |
| Remember | Which definition is correct? |
| Understand | Which statement best explains this concept? |
| Apply | How would you use this principle in this scenario? |
| Analyse | What is the most likely cause of this outcome? |
| Evaluate | Which approach would be most effective? |
What should you do after students vote?
Avoid immediately revealing the correct answer and instead try one of these approaches:
- Asking students to discuss their choice with a neighbour.
- Inviting students to explain their reasoning.
- Exploring why different answers were chosen.
- Re-running the poll after some discussion to see if responses change (“vote-discuss-vote”).
These approaches help students articulate their thinking, learn from peers, and develop a deeper understanding. The discussion afterwards is often more valuable than the vote itself.
Keep responses anonymous
Anonymous participation helps create a low-stakes learning environment where students feel comfortable contributing, and focuses attention on the ideas, not the individual.
Benefits include:
- Higher participation rates
- Reduced fear of getting it wrong
- Increased engagement from quieter students
- Greater honesty in responses
- More representative feedback on their understanding
Beyond Multiple Choice – Word Clouds
A word cloud is an interactive activity that collects words or short phrases from participants and displays them visually. They are useful for exploring prior knowledge, opinions, experiences or reflections.
Example prompts:
- What three words come to mind when you hear this topic?
- What was your key takeaway from last week’s session?
- What is the biggest challenge in this field?
- How confident do you feel about this topic?
Beyond Multiple Choice – Q&A
Questions can be submitted anonymously and voted up by other students, helping you identify the most important topics to address. You can ask students to submit questions at any point during your session, or at specific points in response to a prompt.
Example prompts:
- What question do you still have?
- Summarise today’s key idea in one sentence.
- What concept do you find most challenging?
Further support (starting December 2026)
To help you make the most of Vevox, the TEL team run sessions covering hands-on skills and practical teaching examples. If you’d like to further explore how Vevox can enhance student learning in your modules, contact the TEL team for tailored teaching support or book a programme workshop.
