Guest Mode

Learn how to use Guest Mode in Top Hat to present slides and interactive questions without requiring students to register or enroll in a course. This guide explains when to use Guest Mode, how to activate it, and what features are supported—including polling and exporting results.

Guest Mode is ideal for conference sessions, faculty training, public lectures, and non-registered classrooms where participants don't have Top Hat student accounts. Use the steps below to set up and run a successful Guest Mode session.

Table of Contents

1. When to use Guest Mode
2. Available Functionality
   1. Guest Mode Limitations
3. Accessing and Using Guest Mode
   1. Setting up Guest Mode
   2. Presenter Experience
4. Participating in a Guest Mode Session

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When to use Guest Mode

This feature is intended for presentations that occur outside of the context of a course with registered students (referred to as "non-registered environments"). Use cases for Guest Mode include:

• Conference presentations and public lecture series.
• Faculty training events and internal meetings.
• Short seminars without registered students.
• Presentations where participants may already have a Top Hat instructor account.

At schools where Top Hat is set up with single sign-on (SSO), instructors may not have an option to participate in non-registered environments without a mechanism like Guest Mode.

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Available Functionality

Using Guest Mode, an instructor can:

• Present slides and interactive questions.
• Export question results.
• Host up to 500 concurrent users.

Guest Mode Limitations

• Not for Active Courses: Guest mode is NOT available in courses with registered Top Hat students. It is automatically disabled once 10 registered students enroll in a course.
• No Roster Management: Guest Mode does NOT allow instructors to assign content or take attendance.
• Session Limits: A limit of 5 Guest Mode sessions can be run in a given course. (Only instances where participants respond to questions count towards this limit).
• Time Limits: Each Guest Mode session lasts for 12 hours. Presenters can use guest mode freely during this 12-hour window without additional sessions being counted against their limit.
• Gradebook Exclusions: Guest users will NOT appear in the Gradebook. However, results can be exported as a CSV. Responses will be exported with the name the guest inputted while joining the session.

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Accessing and Using Guest Mode

Setting up Guest Mode

Instructors can enable Guest Mode in their course Present settings. By default, Guest Mode is OFF until manually enabled.

Presenter Experience

Before starting, instructors will see a notification confirming Guest Mode is active and how many sessions remain. Once presenting, a QR code and short URL will be displayed for participants. Click the QR code to expand its size for larger classrooms.

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Participating in a Guest Mode Session

To join as a participant:

1. Scan the on-screen QR code or visit app.tophat.com/guest (opens in a new window) and enter the join code.
2. Input your name when prompted. Your responses will be saved under this name.
3. The participant view will display only polling questions and discussions; slides remain visible only on the main presentation display.

Note for Professors: If you are already logged in to an instructor account, you must use an Incognito/Private browser window to join as a guest participant, otherwise, you will hit an error.