Classroom voting engages students by requiring every student in the class to answer a multiple choice or true/false question. They do this by "voting" on the correct answer, often using a hand held electronic clicker. The results of voting provide immediate feedback on the level of student understanding - both to instructors and to individual students. Numerous studies about the use of this teaching method in collegiate mathematics report that students generally enjoy this teaching method and that it frequently creates a positive and engaging learning environment. Although evidence shows that classroom voting can be more effective than traditional teaching methods if it is used to motivate students to participate in small group discussions about key conceptual issues before a vote, getting started with classroom voting can be challenging. New users are faced with numerous decisions about how the voting will be structured. There are significant challenges to be overcome, including how to incorporate voting while still teaching the necessary curriculum, and how to motivate all students to participate. Thus far these challenges have been dealt with by faculty largely working in isolation at different institutions. "Project MathVote" is a joint effort by a team of eight mathematics instructors with years of experience using classroom voting in a variety of courses at many different types of institutions. The project team is developing a set of general principles of teaching with classroom voting in a way that will apply to a broad range of courses and institutions. Outcomes include a clearer understanding of effective practices for teaching with classroom voting. From the data that classroom voting provides, the project team is gaining insight into common student issues and misconceptions. The team is engaged in writing and testing a library of over 400 classroom voting questions for use in a variety of courses, particularly college algebra, pre-calculus, statistics, and integral calculus. An external evaluator is assisting with impact assessment throughout the project, including analysis of the data gathered through student surveys and voting statistics, the papers written for publication, the new questions produced, and the workshops presented.
