Higher education is heavily reliant on summative assessments.  The ability to better gauge the understanding of students during a semester can be created through the use of live audience response systems.  Poll Everywhere is a system that provides professors the ability to conduct formative assessments.  Overcrowded, undergraduate lecture classes can be transformed to a student-centered learning opportunity through periodic checks for understanding.  Placing students first by focusing less on direct instruction and more on engaging students in the content is easily accomplished through Poll Everywhere’s text messaging system.  Using cell phones that students already carry, they can answer questions that show their knowledge through the use of polls. 

Professors can be more effective when they remove themselves from the “sage on stage” position and provide more classroom time that allows students to create relationships between their prior knowledge and new ideas presented in class.  Students can take the conveyed lessons and make meaningful connections by engaging with the material.  Through this means, students are more likely to retain the presented material by molding and transforming it in a way that is personally meaningful to them.  Interaction can occur through the use of Poll Eveywhere by which a professor poses questions, checks for understanding, and stimulates discussions facilitating a student’s grasp of a lesson’s content.  In addition, professors are able to gauge their effectiveness in communicating their lessons.  Both students and professors are provided the opportunity to construct and rearrange information in a lesson through the guidance of live, interactive polls.