Why won't my location "check-in" for Attendance with Poll Everywhere?

Instructors at UNC Charlotte may use the Attendance Management feature in Poll Everywhere to track student attendance for in-person courses through polling questions. This is accomplished by instructors setting up preset (geo)locations in Poll Everywhere for their physical classrooms. 

The following best practices can ensure that you do not experience errors geolocating when taking a poll:

  • Make sure your mobile device is connected to EDUROAM WiFi (Not Niner WiFi Guest or cellular WiFi)
  • When you arrive at your classroom, disconnect from EDUROAM and reconnect to EDUROAM - this ensures your device is connected to a network box in or near your classroom. 
  • Use the Poll Everywhere Mobile App if you are using a mobile device (phone/tablet) 
  • Allow location sharing/services on your mobile device and allow Poll Everywhere permission to know your location when prompted. 
  • Turn off any VPN services you may be using

If your instructor is using this tool to track attendance, you will be asked to "check in to their preset location" before answering polls.

The following is an example of what the request looks like: 

Poll Everywhere requesting you check in to a preset location.

If you successfully check-in, you will see a green check mark and the message "You are currently checked-in to this presentation":

 

Sometimes mobile devices have problems getting checked in. There are two main error messages you will receive if that happens.

1. "You've declined to share your location. You may retry or continue without checking in" 
You've declined to share your location. You may retry or continue without checking in message

Question: Why are you receiving this message? 

Answer: You did not check the "Allow" pop-up to share your location (see this FAQ) or other privacy settings on your device are blocking Poll Everywhere from accessing your location. 

What do I do?: Retry. If "retry" does not work, log out of Poll Everywhere and log back in to try again. If you do not have time to troubleshoot this error, "Continue without check-in" to complete the poll and alert your instructor during class and in person so your physical attendance is recorded. 

2. "You do not appear to be located in this presenter's designated region"
You do not appear to be located in this presenters designated region message

Question: Why are you receiving this message? 

Answer: This can happen for a few different reasons: 1)You are not in your presenter's designated region (the classroom), 2) You use a VPN and your computer's location is different from your real location, 3) The internal compass inside your computer that controls location sharing is not working properly, or 4) Your mobile device did not share your location with Poll Everywhere (see this FAQ).

What do I do?: Retry. If "retry" does not work, log out of Poll Everywhere and log back in to try again. If you do not have time to troubleshoot this error, "Continue without check-in" to complete the poll and alert your instructor during class and in person so your physical attendance is recorded. 

If you are still unable to check in to your presenter's designated location after following the directions above, please reach out for additional support using one of the options below: 

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