Facilitation & Conversations

How participants access Polaris

Each small group needs one participant to act as the host. The host runs the recording from their own device, and everyone else joins from theirs.

Polaris is fully browser-based, so any device with a microphone works: Chromebook, laptop, phone, or tablet. There's nothing to install.

1. The host starts a room. From the session, they pick Host interview. Polaris hands them a two-word room code like fantastic-fox. If they don't like it, the refresh button rolls another. Create room opens it.
2. The host reads the code out. It's shown large on their screen, and there's a copy button for pasting it into a chat.
3. Everyone else joins. They pick Join interview, type or paste the code, and they're in. Participants can also go straight to polariseducation.ai/join from any device and enter the code there. It's the easiest URL to write on a whiteboard.
4. The host gets three quick recording tips before starting: where to put the device, how to keep the audio clean, and how to stay anonymous. It takes about thirty seconds. The Recording tips button in the room reopens it any time.

Once the group is connected, the host walks through the prompts and the conversation runs from there.

Running the conversation

For a step-by-step version of the tips below, see the Empathy Interview Host Guide. Hosts and participants often find it useful to keep open on the table while the conversation is running.

Monitoring the session as a facilitator

If you're facilitating the session, you can watch every group's progress from your own device in Polaris. You'll see which rooms are open, who's in each one, which are recording, and which have submitted. You don't have to listen in or interrupt. It's there so you can spot a group that's stuck or done early and go help.

To open it, click Monitor session on the session card at the top of your dashboard. (You can also get there through All sessions if you've navigated away.)