Power participation
in your class

Create a classroom where students are empowered to participate. With live polls and interactive discussions, Top Hat makes it easy to spark real dialogue and get instant insight into student learning.

 of students say Top Hat activities helped them feel engaged in the learning process*
0 %
of students say Top Hat is easy to use*
0 %
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*Source: Top Hat Student Survey, Spring 2025.  (n=10,926)

In-class polls and quizzes built to help students apply knowledge

  • Capture student attention with short quizzes and interactive polls they can respond to from any device
  • Test student knowledge with more than 14 question types such as matching, word answer and click-on-target
  • Create your own questions or let Top Hat Ace, your AI-powered assistant, generate prompts based on your lecture content
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Discussion tools that take
the fear out of participating

  • Spark lively conversations that make it easy for everyone, including shy students, to speak up
  • Use anonymous discussions to collect feedback or invite open dialogue on polarizing or sensitive topics
  • Let students upvote responses that give you insight into confusing topics and help you adjust your next lesson
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Gauge comprehension
with real-time data

  • Insights from lecture polls, quizzes and discussions highlight where students are struggling
  • Keep a pulse on student sentiment—from confusion to enthusiasm—with real-time emoji reactions during lectures
  • Get a clear and actionable snapshot of every class from a post-lecture insights report
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Tools for teaching, learning and engaging

In-class engagement is just one of the many ways Top Hat enables professors to teach with engaging content, tools and activities in online, hybrid or face-to-face classrooms

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What's New

Attendance

In-Class Engagement

Assessments & Preparedness

Interactive Content

Insights

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Why students love Top Hat

I really liked the different style of questions for participation in class. The pre-lecture content really helped me to prepare for the lectures.

Student

McMaster University

What I liked best was being able to answer anonymously and seeing what my classmates had to say about the interesting questions we were assigned.

Student

University of Rochester

I liked Top Hat because the professor can ask multiple different types of questions. I also like the organization of the system separating in class slides and questions from the readings.

Student

University of Toronto

Frequently Asked Questions

Live polling tools collect quick responses, whereas Top Hat’s comprehensive student engagement and interactive learning platform supports deeper learning across the full course experience. Beyond live questions, Top Hat offers interactive college textbooks, real-time insights, class attendance and AI-powered study aids. It’s a complete engagement platform built on learning science—not just an in-class live polling tool.

Top Hat is designed to promote academic integrity by creating a learning environment that emphasizes student engagement and accountability rather than surveillance. While Top Hat does not “detect cheating” in the same way as dedicated proctoring software, it includes features that help instructors discourage and identify academic dishonesty.

For example, instructors can randomize question order and answer options, limit response times and track participation and performance in real time. These tools make it more difficult for students to share answers or collaborate inappropriately during assessments.

For high-stakes exams, many instructors pair Top Hat with additional proctoring solutions that monitor test-taking behavior. Together, these tools support fair and secure assessments while maintaining a focus on student learning and trust.

Yes. Instructors have the option to pose anonymous discussion questions to their class. They are a great tool when collecting sensitive, polarizing, or personal feedback from a class with privacy, accuracy, and honesty. When an anonymous question is selected, you will not be able to see what individuals answer. Only aggregated results will be available from our live polling software when an anonymous question is used, meaning it cannot be graded as students’ identities are hidden. Read more about anonymous questions in this Support article.

Yes. Students can participate in interactive polls, classroom clicker questions, and other assignments for students using any Internet-connected device—laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Top Hat’s live polling tool allows students to respond to formative assessment questions in real time, even if they’re not physically present. As long as they’ve joined the appropriate course, students can take part in discussions, homework assignments, and live polling activities from anywhere, supporting flexible and inclusive participation across all learning environments.
Yes. Top Hat has autograding functionality across a variety of live polling and homework question types as well as several assessment options. Depending on the assignment and the questions used (such as multiple choice versus open-ended), Top Hat automatically grades submitted student work. Student responses to Top Hat discussions can be graded for correctness and/or participation.

There are a few ways to encourage students to participate in and answer class discussion questions with Top Hat. One option is to make a discussion question graded (even just for participation), so students have an incentive to answer in order to help with their final grade. Another option is to enable anonymous answers. Anonymous answers create a safe space for students to feel comfortable to speak their mind or ask a question without the pressure of speaking in front of the entire class. Educators can also encourage students to ‘upvote’ responses as a form of participation, to get an idea of which responses are most popular among the class. For more information on discussion questions, watch this video.