One-shot poll at a seminar: QR code and anonymous answers

Facilitation (Pronoia)

What the one-shot poll is for

The one-shot poll is Pronoia's lightest way to collect answers: no invitations, no sign-in, no handle. The audience scans a QR code with their phones, answers the theses and submits anonymously. Everyone answers once.

The one-shot poll suits

• taking the temperature of a seminar or workshop: where the room stands on the theses before and after a discussion
• the start or end of a Delphi: a wider audience's view alongside the panel's results
• teaching: presenting the method so that everyone gets to try it.

It does not suit a vote whose outcome is binding. Anonymity means no one can verify who answered, and the duplicate-vote guard only works per browser (see Limits).

Before the session

1. Write the theses. Scale theses are answered with a slider, other theses in text. Short theses about one thing work best in a hall; three to six are enough.
2. Choose Anonymous one-shot poll in the settings. Tick Poll open — accepting responses right now and save. An unsaved poll will not open.
3. Check the share card. A card appears under the tick with the QR code, the Public link and the poll's state. The state should say that the code works now.
4. Test with your own phone. Scan the code, answer and submit. A second attempt from the same browser says you have already answered; that is correct. Your test answer stays in the results, so allow for it when you read them, or test on a separate copy of the study.
5. Prepare the presentation view. Open presentation view opens a white full-screen page: the study's name, a large code, the address and the prompt “Scan the code with your phone and answer”. Open it in a browser tab you can project, or take a screenshot for a slide. Copy link puts the address on the clipboard if you want to send it to remote participants.

The address carries the study's language. Voters can switch language (Finnish, English, Swedish) at the top of the page.

During the session

What to tell the room:

Scan the code with your phone. Your answer is fully anonymous: no name, no sign-in, and no identifier is stored about you. Answer the theses and press Submit anonymously. Everyone answers once.

Keep the presentation view on screen throughout the poll: latecomers can still join, and the address is readable for anyone whose phone will not read the code.

Disruptions:

• The service is busy. The voter sees “The service is busy right now. Wait a moment and submit again – your answers are still in the form.” Ask people to wait a moment; nothing is lost. The server's limit is sized for a hall (see Technical description).
• The network drops. The message says the answer was not saved. The answers stay in the form, and submitting works once the connection is back.
• Someone presses submit without answering. The page asks them to answer at least one thesis.

Closing the poll

Remove the tick from Poll open — accepting responses right now and save. After that the code opens a page that reads “The poll is closed.” Anyone who submits at the very moment of closing sees a message that the poll was closed before their answer arrived.

You can reopen the poll the same way, for example for a second measurement after a discussion. Note that the same-browser guard applies to the whole poll: to measure the same audience twice, run the second measurement as a separate study.

Results

The answers go into the round's results and distribution like any other answers. Each submission is stored as an anonymous participant who does not appear on the panel roster or in group comparison. That is why one-shot poll results cannot be broken down by group: voters have no box in the panel matrix.

Read the result like this:

• The distribution shows where the room stands, not the expert panel's position. If you set it beside Delphi results, say in the report that it comes from a different group.
• The reasons are anonymous and one-off. They cannot be clarified or answered, so they are material, not dialogue.
• The number of respondents is the number of submissions. Without an identifier, it does not tell you how many different people answered.

Limits

• The duplicate-vote guard is per browser. The same browser answers once. The guard stops accidental repeats, but not deliberate ones: another browser or a private window can answer again.
• No commenting. Voters can write a reason, but cannot comment on others' answers.
• No follow-up. A one-shot poll creates no own page, no revision and no next round. To engage participants further, invite them to the panel in the usual way.

Technical description

• The poll page is /poll/{study}?lang={language} and the presentation view /poll/{study}/qr. The QR code is drawn in the browser (error correction level M, four-module quiet zone); the address never passes through an outside service.
• GET /api/poll/{study} returns the theses of an open poll and POST /api/poll/{study} stores the answers. Each submission creates an anonymous participant (participant_type = anonymous).
• The server rejects a closed poll (403) and overload (429); the page tells the voter about both.
• The per-address limit is 1,500 submissions and 3,000 page loads in ten minutes. Phones in a hall often reach the server from the same address, so the limit is sized for a hall, not for a single user.
• The duplicate-vote guard lives in the browser's storage; the server stores no identifier for the voter.

See also: Anonymity: identity modes and group reporting.