Institutions have long employed lectures as the standard means of teaching, with the assumption that they are an efficient method of imparting great amounts of knowledge to large groups of students. Recent research, however, rejects the effectiveness of traditional lecture formats on participant comprehension and knowledge retention. When the audience takes a purely passive role, their concentration falls off after 20 to 30 minutes with most people incapable of recalling more than three facts from an hour long lecture.
Using audience response technology improves lectures by requiring more efficient acquisition and retention of knowledge through active learning.
Here are some tips to make your interactive audience response presentations run smoother:
Tip 1: Keep questions short to improve legibility
Keep your question and answer options short and simple so that the audience can read them easily and respond quickly.
Tip 2: Have five (or less) answer options
If more than five options are provided to read. Also, when results are displayed, they become cluttered and hard to interpret.
Tip 3: Ask simple questions
Don’t make your questions too complex. If you present your audience with too much text and think they’ll be able to read it, digest it and make an immediate decision, either the response rate will drop because of the difficulty of the task, or the presentation will slow down a lot to allow time to meaningfully answer the questions. Neither of these situations is ideal – the purpose of using audience response systems is to create a non-threatening environment which encourages the participation of all audience members, and for the session to be active and fun.
Tip 4: Allocate time for discussion
Once the presentation is underway the audience quickly gets involved and much discussion evolves as their responses to the questions are displayed. When preparing your presentation, therefore, you must build in time for such discussion.
Tip 5: Don’t ask too many questions
Use questions sparsely to highlight the points you most want to emphasize to maximize impact. Vary your presentation with other slides. Presenting your audience with a series of one question after another becomes tedious and their enthusiasm will diminish.
Tip 6: Inspect your polling location ahead of time in order to identify any potential technical problems
There are some technical issues to keep in mind with regard to venue. For example, certain types of lighting can interfere with the signals of infra-red (IR) handsets and receivers. Radio-frequency (RF) units may encounter difficulties if the range between base stations and keypads is too far, or if separate interactive polling sessions are held simultaneously in close proximity. It is therefore recommended to try out the system in the reserved venue so that any such problems can be identified and rectified before the presentation begins.
Tip 7: Set up and test the system before the session begins
It takes some time to connect the various hardware and lay out the handsets – depending on the size of meeting room and audience. Allow plenty of time to set up the system and ensure all the components are working before your audience arrives, and plan for some extra time to resolve any issues that may unexpectedly come up during the setup process.
Tip 8: Rehearse your presentation to ensure that it will run smoothly
interactive group response systems are simple to use but require initial practice to get familiar with them and to co-ordinate the timing for a smooth-running presentation. Rehearse your presentation several times, especially the first few times that you use the audience response system technology, until you are confident with it.
Tip 9: Provide clear instruction to your audience
Brief your audience on what is expected of them. Unless they send their answer at the appropriate time, their answer will not be accepted. Clear instruction should be given before the session begins in order that the maximum number of valid responses to each question is collected.
Tip 10: Encourage participatory discussion
One of the most beneficial features of interactive polling sessions!presentations is the sincere discussion that ensues from the audience polling format. The anonymous nature of the responses provides an informal, non-threatening environment, and this encourages spontaneous debate between the audience and presenter.
Adhering to the above practical advice will help you achieve the benefits of interactive group response systems, which can turn large group polling sessions into a truly interactive – and fun – experience for both you and your audience.
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