FAQ

General

What should I enter in the “Session Code” field?

You are welcome to leave the session code field blank. If you are worried that students outside the auditorium might access and vote in your survey, the session code ensures that only the students present in the auditorium can vote. Thus, please pick any code you prefer and share it with the students.

I forgot my password. What now?

Please register again at www.eduvote.de/en/ with the e-mail that you previously registered with. The system is aware that you are already registered and will send you your password again.

How can I change my password?

The password is sent unencrypted to our server, as no special protection is needed to initialize a survey. Because of this, we would like to prevent you from creating passwords that might be connected with vulnerable logins, such as a password associated with an online banking account. Similarly, we also do not allow you to easily update your own password. You can, however, change your password by sending an e-mail to info@eduvote.de with your preferred password.

How many students can participate in a Quick Poll / Survey?

The number of participants in an eduVote survey is not capped. However, please be sure that all members of the audience can connect to the Internet. eduVote has already been successfully tested with more than 1000 participants. For large audiences, we recommend connecting the instructor’s computer to the internet via a LAN connection.

Can students also use eduVote if a university has an enterprise license?

Yes, all those who belong to the institution and have an associated e-mail address can conduct surveys via eduVote. The students must register at www.eduvote.de/en/ and then they will be able to initialize a survey.

How do I know if my university already has a license?

The quickest way to find out is to try registering with your university e-mail address at www.eduvote.de/en/. If your university has a license, you will be able to register for free. If not, your registration will not work and you will get a failure notice. If you are interested in a free trial account, please send us an email at register@eduvote.de.

Will I incur any costs by registering? Do I have to be careful not to accidently order something?

No, if your institution has an enterprise license, you can simply register and there will be no cost to you. If your institution does not have a license, the registration page will give you a failure notice. If you are interested in a free trial account, please send us an email at register@eduvote.de.

How do I create visually rich questions and answers that include mathematical formulas and graphics?

In this case, please use the PowerPoint Add-In.

eduVote doesn’t work because the internet is accessed through a Proxy Server.

If this is the case, please set the Proxy Server and Port via the eduVote settings. In the Windows application, please add these in the separate fields provided. In the PowerPoint Add-In, please add these in the format: “ServerName:Port”.

PowerPoint Add-In

The start button is no longer displayed for my eduVote polls.

As of add-in version 4.09, the control button is no longer displayed if you have selected "Click-Through Control of the Voting Process".
In this case you can control the poll via the left mouse click, the right arrow key or a presenter.
If you want to reset the poll, please use the button in the eduVote menu.

The start button is not displayed even though "Click-Through Control of the Voting Process" is not selected.

In the current version of Office (2025), Microsoft has changed the default setting for ActiveX elements so that they can no longer be used.

If you want to use the Start button, please proceed as follows:

In PowerPoint, click File|Options|Trust Centre.
Select ‘Trust Centre settings...’.
Select the menu item ‘ActiveX settings’.
Select the second item from the top.

When using the PowerPoint Add-In, the button to control the survey is displayed twice on the beamer.

This error can occur with small laptops with very high resolution (e.g. Surface pro), if a PowerPoint version prior to 10/2023 is used. In this case, please proceed as follows:
Install an add-in from version 4.09. Select the presenter mode there. The button is now no longer displayed and you can control the survey via the left mouse click, the right arrow key or a presenter.
Alternative solutions can be found here.

If I click on "Start survey" in PowerPoint, nothing happens?

To test and use eduVote's features, you must switch to PowerPoint's presentation mode (F5) and make sure the add-in is installed.

eduVote doesn’t work on the last slide of my PowerPoint presentation. Why?

On the last slide of a PPT presentation you can’t control the eduVote Add-In using a presenter or the right-arrow-key on your keyboard.

Please add a blank slide at the end of you presentation.

When controlling the survey, the next slide is displayed briefly for each action.

Please do not use a transition between a slide with survey and the following slide.

I get the runtime error: "The method 'AddOLEObject' for the object 'Shapes' failed"

This error message can have several causes:

1. Please open the Trust Centre under "Options". Select the "ActivX settings" item there. Activate the third item "Show command prompt before all..." and check the "Safe mode" box.

2. Please click on "Visual Basic" in the "Developer Tools" menu. Then select "Links..." in the "Extras" menu. OLE Automation" and "Microsoft Forms" must be selected here.

I get an error message in the PPT Add-In that says, “Item EduvoteInfo not found in the Shapes Collection.”

You are receiving this error because you have deleted the Info Box from your slide. Please do not delete any of the three eduVote graphical elements. If you’d prefer that this item does not appear on the slide, simply place it somewhere where it will not be visible.

I get the runtime error when inserting a survey: "The method 'AddChart2' for the object 'Shapes' has failed".

This error message may occur if the Excel app, which is actually intended for use on Windows S, is installed on your computer in addition to the "normal" version of Excel. The error can be corrected by uninstalling the Excel app.

The box for choosing the correct answer is not displayed. How can I select the right answers?

In rare cases, the survey Insert/edit window may not display the field for choosing the correct answer. If this happens, move the window back and forth briefly with the mouse.

What should I enter for the “Proxy Server” in the eduVote instructor software / PowerPoint Add-In?

If everything is working fine, you don’t need to enter anything there! If you have to or would prefer to use a Proxy Server, please add the server and port there. In the instructor software, please add these in the separate fields provided. In the PowerPoint Add-In, please add these in the format: “ServerName:Port”.

I get the error message: " Image could not be updated".

This error message may occur if the presentation was created with a newer version of the add-in and then an attempt is made to run this presentation on a computer with an old add-in. Please install the current version of the add-in on the presentation computer.

How can I edit the result diagram in the PowerPoint Add-In (Office 2010)?

Double-click on the diagram area and select "Edit existing" (NOT "Convert") in the dialog that opens! All Excel functions are then available for editing the diagram display.

Voting

Must all students register with eduVote before they can vote?

No, only the instructor must register to initialize a survey. The participants can vote anonymously and without registration.

After I vote, my phone says that I’ve “Already voted” and I cannot pass my phone to a classmate to vote as well.

The general settings for a survey require that there is a 10 second wait time between each vote. This is to make it difficult to “sabotage” a survey through continuous voting. After the 10 seconds, another student can use the phone to vote. However, the instructor can also set the survey to only allow one vote per device.

I’ve noticed that it’s possible to vote multiple times. Is this a failure?

The ability to submit multiple votes per device is generally allowed so that the device can be passed to another student who otherwise would not be able to vote. Please be aware that in a “normal” survey, there will be a 10 second wait time between votes in order to make it difficult to “sabotage” a survey through continuous voting. At the same time, 10 seconds should be short enough to allow for the other student to vote. The instructor can, however, decide to limit the voting to one vote per device.