Word Clouds/Interactive Polls

Word clouds are a visually interesting way to highlight key words or phrases that appear in a selected text. The more frequent the words or phrases appear in the text, the larger they are displayed in the word cloud. You can use a word cloud to spark a discussion about participants’ prior experiences with the topic or concept or ask participants to predict what they are going to learn in the module or lesson.

Another twist is to use an online word cloud generator. Participants submit their responses using their smartphones or other mobile devices to produce an interactive word cloud on screen. As more words and phrases are submitted, their size and location on screen changes to reflect their frequency.

Instructions

How to use a word cloud generator:

  1. Copy and paste selected text (or upload a complete document, if that feature is available) in the word cloud generating software. Some word cloud generators allow you to block repetitive non-content words.
  2. Capture the resulting word cloud as an image using the computer’s Print Screen command or screen-capturing software.
  3. If necessary, crop the image.
  4. Upload or copy and paste the word cloud image onto a PowerPoint slide.

How to use an interactive word cloud app:

  1. Smart phone apps generally require a fee or subscription. Follow the instructions provided for the selected app.
  2. Create word cloud poll and embed it into the presentation.
  3. Present the poll during the presentation.
  4. Participants submit words online or via texts on their smart phones.
  5. The words appear on the screen. Frequently shared words grow larger as others grow smaller.

Example 1

A word cloud generated from text selected from the Soils and Foundations Reference Manual is shown below (figure 54).

Word cloud generated from text selection from Soils and Foundations Reference Manual. Larger sized words: soli, foundations, design, discussed, presented, testing, stability, geotechncial, basic, analysis. Medium sized words: classification, concepts, construction, deep, embankments, information, laboratory, methods, proceures, project settlement, shallow, slope, subsurface, testing, wall. Smaller sized words: application, approach, consolidation, drilled, driving, earth, effects, engineering, external, friction, generic, group, guidelines, highway, including, introduced, methods, pile, profile, selection, shafts, types, typical, various.
Figure 54: Word cloud from Soils and Foundations Reference Manual

Instructor-Led Training

You can create a slide that asks participants to predict what topics or concepts they think should appear in the course. Then embed a link to an online interactive poll on the slide. During the course, share the website address and the identifying code with participants. When you open the poll, participants can submit their responses. As participants respond, the word cloud grows and changes.

Web-Based Training

Post a word cloud that you generated using the text from an assigned course reading, blog, or website. Ask participants to write several questions they hope they will find answers to during the module and post them to the course discussion board.

Web Conference Training

You can get an idea of participants’ background knowledge by using an interactive word cloud during a brainstorming activity. Ask participants to think of what they already know about the topic or the experiences they have had with it. Share the link to the word cloud website and watch the results of the survey appear. Take a screenshot to save the image for later analysis.