Social Poll Settings, Results and Advanced Features
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Last updated 14 July 2025
This guide builds on the Social Poll in Canvas resource, focusing on advanced settings, student-facing configuration options, results and analytics, and poll management. These features allow you to customise how polls behave, control what students see, and interpret their responses effectively. Polls created using the Social Poll tool are intended for formative engagement and feedback. They do not link to the Canvas Gradebook.
If you’re just getting started, learn how to set up a Social Poll in Canvas before moving on to the advanced features here.
Configure the poll settings
These configuration options affect how the entire poll behaves. They appear on the main edit screen when setting up a Social Poll.
Submission window
Controls when students can submit responses to the poll. You can set specific open and close times or allow students to view the poll without submitting.
How to enable: In the main poll edit screen, set the ‘Available from’ (when the poll opens) and ‘Until’ fields (when the poll closes). To allow viewing outside this window, tick ‘Show poll outside of submission window.’
When to use: Use to align the poll with a scheduled activity, reading, or class. Allow viewing outside the window if you want students to preview questions but respond later.
Student options
These settings affect how students interact with the poll.
Make poll submissions anonymous
Prevents student names from being visible in poll results or downloaded reports. Responses appear with student numbers instead of names.
How to enable: Tick the ‘Make poll submissions anonymous’ checkbox on the poll settings screen.
When to use it: Use when polling for sensitive topics, collecting general feedback, or whenever student privacy is important.
Allow students to change their answer
Allows students to update their submission after they’ve voted.
How to enable: Tick the ‘Allow students to change their answer’ checkbox on the poll settings screen.
When to use it: Use when students may need to reflect, revise, or adjust their answers. For example, after a discussion or clarification.
Hide poll results for students
Hides the overall class results after students respond. They will only see their own answer.
How to enable: Tick the ‘Hide poll results for students’ checkbox on the poll settings screen.
When to use: Use when responses might be sensitive or you don’t want student votes influenced by peer results.
Hide explanation response times after 2 weeks
After two weeks, hides any explanation responses submitted by students from view.
How to enable: Tick the ‘Hide explanation response times after two weeks’ checkbox.
When to use: Use when you want responses to be visible for a short reflective period, but not permanently accessible.
Hide explanation responses from other students
Only allows students to see their own reasoning or reflection — not others’ responses.
How to enable: Tick the ‘Hide explanation responses from other students’ checkbox.
When to use: Use to encourage private reflection or avoid bias from peer responses in open-ended questions.
Theme settings
Theme colour options adjust the appearance of the results and feedback of your poll. You can alter the display of a poll by selecting one of the four colour options (blue, green, red, black) or by configuring the poll to have a border.
How to enable: Select from the available theme colour options; optionally display a border around the poll
When to use it: Use to align with course branding or improve visual accessibility.
Preview, Edit and Test a Poll
You can make changes to your poll or test how it works from a student’s perspective using the toolbar at the top right of the poll.
To edit a poll, click the pencil icon. This opens the edit screen, where you can update the poll title, add or remove questions, and adjust settings. To make changes to a specific question, click directly on the question title.
To preview the poll, click the eye icon. This lets you view the poll exactly as your students will see it. You can interact with the poll, select answers, and view feedback to ensure everything works as expected before publishing.
View Results and Analytics
Once students begin responding to your poll, you can monitor and analyse the results using the built-in tools. Here’s how:
View Poll Results
Click the clipboard icon in the upper-right corner of the poll to view student responses.
You’ll see each option with the number of votes it received.
If enabled, you’ll also see the percentage of students who selected each option. Click the clipboard icon to view results
Useful tip
Use the Live Results toggle in the lower-left corner to update the results view in real time as students submit responses.
This is useful if you’re sharing poll results during a live class or presentation.
Analytics View
Click the graph icon to access detailed participation data. This includes how many students have and haven’t answered each question.
You can click on ‘People who have voted’ or ‘People who haven’t voted’ to open a table with:
SIS ID
Student name (or anonymous student number, if anonymity is enabled)
Their poll response
Useful tip
To clear all poll data, click Reset Responses at the bottom-right of the results screen.
Note: This cannot be undone.
Download Results
Click the three-dot icon ( ⋯ ) in the top-right menu. Choose from:
Download Results – Downloads a .zip file with a separate CSV file for each poll question.
Download Results as Single File – Downloads one CSV file with all responses in a single spreadsheet.
Both formats include question text, student responses, and vote counts. To save poll data as a spreadsheet, click the three dot icon in the top-right of the poll.
Reuse a poll in another subject
You can reuse a poll by copying it to a new Canvas subject using the Import Course Content tool. Follow these steps:
In the Canvas course where you want to reuse your polls, go to Settings.
Click Import Course Content (right-hand side).
From the Content Type dropdown, choose Copy a Canvas Course.
Search for and select the course that contains your Social Polls.
Choose All Content, or select specific content (e.g. Pages or Modules that contain the poll).
Click Import to copy the content.
After the import is complete, open the new subject and launch the Social Polls tool at least once to activate permissions.
Check that the polls are present, and verify that settings like anonymity and feedback have copied correctly.
