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Knowledgebase: Canvas > Canvas for Instructors
Using Wooclap for Learner Engagement
Last modified on 15 October 2026 07:59 PM

University of Alberta has selected Wooclap as its centrally supported student response system. Wooclap is an online polling application that integrates with Canvas to help instructors interact with learners during and after lectures. The service offers numerous workflows for creating engaging questions that instructors can deliver to students during and after live lectures. 

To get started, instructors can watch this screen recording of CTL's Introductory Wooclap webinar, delivered June 11, 2025.

 

Contents:

Adding Wooclap to a course

Wooclap needs to be linked to a Canvas course using an assignment:

1. First, click on the +Assignment button on the top right.
    Then set the Submission type to external tool:

Note: For Submission Type to be available, 'Display Grade as' must be set to one of Percentage, Complete/Incomplete, or Points.)

2. Click Find:

3. Click Wooclap to open the resource link:

4. On the resource link modal screen, select one of the following:
    - Create from scratch (Select this if you intend to create from scratch OR re-use your existing polls in Wooclap)
    - Duplicate an existing event (this creates a duplicate copy of the event in Wooclap) 
    - Choose a template is currently not available.

    Then click Continue:

4.a. If you selected Duplicate an existing event, you will see a dialogue box that allows you to search through all your existing Wooclap events and select one to copy all of the existing questions from. This will leave your existing event unchanged:

  • Once an event is selected, scroll to the bottom and click Confirm choice.
  • Give your event a name and click Continue.
  • Click Select on the 'Configure External Tool' modal that has Wooclap already highlighted.

5. This will redirect you to the Assignment Settings page. In the Submission Type section:

  • External Tool URL will be filled
  • Open in a new tab is checked by default and is recommended:

Set the access dates and time, click Save or Save and publish at the bottom of the Canvas assignment page. 

Creating Events and Questions in Wooclap

Once added to the Canvas course, clicking the tool link will show a button to launch the tool.

Once the tool loads, you will land on the new Wooclap event -- either blank or containing existing questions -- where you can add or edit questions and configure your event:

Once you are working directly in Wooclap and you have accessed an Event, clicking New question allows you to select from a wide variety of question types - hovering over each question type will provide additional details and usage guidelines:

Integrating Wooclap with Presentation Tools

You can integrate Wooclap questions and events directly into your existing presentation workflow using the methods below.

Google Slides:

There are two primary ways to use Wooclap with Google Slides. For a detailed walkthrough, refer to the guide on How to use Wooclap in Google Slides.

  • Option 1: The Wooclap Extension/Add-on – Install the browser extension to insert interactions directly into your slides.

  • Option 2: Import to Wooclap – Upload your Google Slides file directly into the Wooclap interface. This method also supports .ppt and .pptx files.

Note: Unlike PowerPoint or PDF imports, Google Slides integration does not allow questions to be "nested" between slides. Instead, you can seamlessly toggle between your presentation slides and live real-time votes.

PowerPoint:

Wooclap also offers multiple integration paths for PowerPoint.

  • Importing Presentations – You can combine Wooclap with PowerPoint, Keynote, or PDF files by importing them into a Wooclap event. This allows you to insert questions between your slides for a unified experience.

  • Wooclap PowerPoint Add-In – Users can also embed events directly into PowerPoint presentations using a vendor-supplied add-in. For more information see the vendor's user guide: How to use Wooclap in PowerPoint? or this video walkthrough. The add-in requires SSO authentication.

    • On U of A classroom-managed devices (including personal and podium machines) on the STS domain (Windows), users will see a screen like this:

    • Mac users will see a Wooclap authentication screen where they must select SSO, then on the next screen enter their @ualberta.ca email address, and click Continue with SSO:




    Delivering Events

    Wooclap events and questions are displayed to students by clicking the Start Event button or Display button at the top of the event or by clicking Display to the right of specific questions:

    If using the Start Event or entire event Display button, instructors will see (and can display for students) the event launch page:

    Once students access sessions through Canvas (or any of the other methods), they will see an alert that No Question is Live until instructors advance from the launch screen or click the Display on a particular question (see above.)

    Self-Paced Sessions

    Instructors can use self-paced sessions [previously known as Participant's Pace] to have participants answer questions asynchronously.

    Grading and Synchronizing with Canvas **Upcoming changes expected end of October**

    To sync your grades to Canvas, you have to make sure to activate the right authentication method in the main settings, before you start the event. Only events that are created through Canvas have the LMS Login option.

    • LMS Login -  lets anyone with a Canvas login participate in the event. 
    • Restricit to LMS roster - makes sure that only participants listed in the course roster will be able to join this session. This restriction only works for participants whose email address matches the one recorded for them in your LMS roster.

    If you have created your session outside the LMS (see below), participants can still be identified using different authentication methods but grades can only be uploaded via CSV file.

    Once an event created through Canvas is completed, you can click on the "Synchronize with LMS" button to push the grades to the gradebook. You can then choose which items you want to sync (there are three options available: Results, Attendance, Participation). This action will push the grades to the Gradebook. Note that you can only synchronize one of the three. 

    Please note that the Attendance option will only show up if you have the "Attendance sheet" turned on in settings.

     

    • Participation is scored based on how many questions the participant answered compared to the total number of questions that require an answer. The LMS then converts this score into a percentage.
    • Results reflect the points earned based on answer correctness. Questions without a correct answer (such as open questions or word clouds) are not considered when calculating the results.
    • Attendance is only available if the attendance sheet is activated. As of October 1,2026 Wooclap has implemented a New Attendance Check feature that requires you to display "Attendance Check" during the session to capture the attendance.
      Please note that even if you are using events created prior to October 1,2026 you are required to display the "Attendance Check" question to capture attendance for that session. 

    Attendance

    To turn on and capture attendance :

    1. Turn on the "attendance sheet" setting in any event to create your first Attendance Check.
    2. Click on display and a unique code appears on the presenter's projected screen, and participants enter it on their own device to confirm they're in the room.
    3. You can add checks at different moments during a session by clicking on the 3 dots and selecting "Add a new check" and dragging it to the desired location during the session as shown above.
    4. You may then review and edit attendance afterwards in the attendance report.
    5. You can also import your course roster directly from Canvas to get a full overview of your cohort.

    You can find detailed step-by-step guide here: How to take attendance with Wooclap

    Using Wooclap Outside Canvas

    Note: Students should access graded events through Canvas to ensure their answers are passed back to the gradebook.

    If instructors create events in Wooclap but do not link them through Canvas, they can still click the Display button at the top of live meetings to have learners join the poll. They can also get a direct participation link to share in advance for their event at the bottom left of that screen:

    For instructors delivering events outside Canvas, it is still possible to require poll takers to sign in (for example to collect responder data) by toggling on Authentication and then enabling either or both the Social login and SSO/Institution login options:

    Note: Email login is not enabled at the U of A and should not be used.

    For instructors wishing to access Wooclap outside of Canvas to create events, either of these authentication methods will function also function but when using google auth and SSO, users may need to login via both methods in a browser session to ensure they are accessing the same account via the 2 different mthods. Users need to also ensure that if authenticating using Google, the email must be in the format ccid@ualberta.ca and not an alias email (e.g., first.lastname@ualberta.ca).

    Accessing Wooclap directly: Students can access events by scanning the QR code, clicking the participation link, or through direct access to Wooclap at https://app.wooclap.com/auth/login where they can enter the poll code on the left side. Using any of these methods, if authentication is required for an event, the students will have a choice of how to sign in:

    When students access an event like this and click on Continue with Google (screenshot above), they can then authenticate for Wooclap by selecting their UofA Gmail account. During their first access, users will need to Choose the correct Google account to pass through to Wooclap:

    New in May 2026: students who have opted in to MFA for students may also see their Duo mobile authentication screen when trying to access Wooclap and will need to complete that process prior to gaining access to an event:

    Getting Help or More Information

    For additional information on creating and delivering events, Wooclap provides built-in help through the question mark icon in the bottom right:

     

    For users who want to begin with a more formal guided overview, please see Wooclap Essentials for Presenters as well as this guide for beginners.

    Instructors can also register for training webinars provided by the vendor.

    Known Issues:

    Issue/Problem Summary Known Workarounds
    Entering special characters breaks LaTeX formatting in question/answer display

    If a special character (i.e. &, %, $, #, etc.) is entered along with any formatting code, the display breaks and shows only the LaTeX code.

    Special characters can be escaped by enclosing them in backslashes, e.g. \&\

    This will prevent the issue.
    The PowerPoint Add-in for Wooclap does not work

    If you add the Wooclap add-in directly into a PowerPoint presentation, it will give an error, as we do not have our CCID login linked yet. 

    You can add an existing PowerPoint presentation into your Wooclap, and it works with no errors. 
    Adding Wooclap to Google Slides has no issues. 

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