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Organizations have long used lectures as the standard means of teaching, assuming that they are an effective method of imparting great amounts of information to large groups of participants. Recent research, however, rejects the effectiveness of standard lecture formats on participant comprehension and knowledge retention. When the audience assumes a purely passive role, their concentration falls off after 20 to 30 minutes with most people unable to recall more than three facts from an hour long lecture.

Using audience response system technology improves lectures by promoting more efficient acquisition and retention of knowledge through active learning.

The following tips will make your interactive audience response presentations run smoother:

Tip 1: Keep questions short to optimize readability

Keep your question stem and answer options short and simple in order that the audience can read them easily and respond quickly.

Tip 2: Have five (or less) answer options

If more than five options are displayed to read. Also, when results are shown, they become cluttered and hard to interpret.

Tip 3: Ask simple questions

Do not make your questions too complex. If you give your audience too much information and think they’ll be able to read it, understand it and make a quick decision, either the response rate will drop due to the difficulty of the task, or the presentation will slow down considerably to allow time to meaningfully answer the questions. Neither of these situations is ideal – the purpose of using group response systems is to create a non-threatening atmosphere 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 a great deal of discussion occurs as their responses to the questions are displayed. When preparing your presentation, therefore, you must plan time for such discussion.

Tip 5: Don’t inundate participants with too many questions

Use questions sparingly to highlight the points you most want to emphasize to maximize impact. Vary your presentation with other slides. Giving your audience with a series of one question after another becomes unbearable and their enthusiasm will fly out the window.

Tip 6: Check out your meeting location ahead of time in order to identify any potential technical problems

There are some technical issues to bear in mind regarding 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 adjoining rooms. It is thus advisable to test the system in the proposed venue in order that any such problems can be identified and fixed before the polling session begins.

Tip 7: Set up and test the system before the session begins

It takes some time to connect the various components and lay out the handsets - depending on the size of venue and audience. Allow plenty of time to set up the system and make sure all the components are working before your audience arrives, and plan for some extra time to fix any issues that may unexpectedly come up during the setup process.

Tip 8: Practice your presentation to ensure that it will run smoothly

interactive audience response systems are simple to use but require initial practice to familiarize yourself with them and to co-ordinate the timing for a smooth-running presentation. Practice your presentation several times, especially the first few times that you use the audience response technology, until you are confident with it.

Tip 9: Give clear directions to your audience

Inform your audience on what is expected of them. Unless they send their answer at the correct time, their answer will not be recorded. Clear directions 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 results from the audience polling format. The anonymous nature of the responses provides an informal, non-threatening environment, and this encourages free-flowing debate between the audience and presenter.

Adhering to the above practical advice will help you achieve the benefits of interactive audience response systems, which can turn large group polling meetings into a truly interactive – and fun – experience for both you and your audience.