AUDIENCE RESPONSE SYSTEMS
(ODD-ee-ents REE-spahn-ts)
SOLID
What is an Audience Response System?
An audience response system is a usually web-based application that allows you to survey your participants in real time.
Other Common Names
Other common names for lesson plan include:
- Live Engagement Tools
- Polling Software
Key Properties
- Web-based software
- Audience can respond through text messaging or a website
- No additional equipment or hardware is needed as long as participants have a device such as a smartphone, tablet, or computer
Resources From The Train Like a Champion Blog
Thoughts on Audience REsponse Systems that We Think Deserve Your Vote
- "Audience interactivity has come a long way, and technology has created some new ways for presenters to engage participants through real-time polling that appears on the projector screen. Audience response software, also referred to as polling software, can be a quick and easy way to survey your learners and find out what they know, what they want to know, or what they’re thinking about your content and presentation. Some of today’s more popular tools include PollEverywhere, Mentimeter, and slido."
- "A note of caution: Using an audience response tool can be a fun and eye-opening experience for both presenter and participant, but it isn’t for the faint of heart. As is good practice with any internet-based tool, it is a good idea to make sure you have a back-up plan in place in the event it doesn’t behave like you want it to."
- "Depending on the platform you use, you could engage your audience through multiple-choice polling, open-ended questions, or word clouds generated with participant responses. Some platforms also allow you to get into quizzing and games (which we’ll cover with element 9, quiz software). While more analog versions, such as surveying your audience by asking for a show of hands, can give you a general feeling for where people stand, audience response software allows you (and your audience) to see in real time the exact breakdown of the responses to your questions."
Elements that bond with Audience Response Systems
PowerPoint
Most audience response software is able to integrate online polling with your PowerPoint slides. This will allow you to keep all your visual cues in one file during the presentation as opposed to having to toggle between applications.
Adult Learning
Providing participants with an opportunity to be self-directed learners is a key element of adult learning theory. Integrating an audience response system into a session can provide learners with opportunities to share their thoughts, uncover their needs, and allow you to modify the lesson in the moment as a response.
Assessment
Determining whether your learners are “getting it” can be a tricky initiative with smaller groups, and it becomes trickier as your groups grow larger. Asking questions and monitoring responses through audience response software takes some of the pressure off your learners (since their responses are anonymous) while allowing you to determine how many can come up with the correct answers to your queries.
Virtual Meeting
If you’re conducting a webinar or virtual classroom session, there is software that will integrate with your virtual meeting platform. Most virtual platforms also have built-in polling features that can help you interact with and assess your learners, regardless of the number of participants. Using polling can help break the monotony of virtual lectures and can be an important tool to combat multitasking participants.
Instructional Design
While throwing a poll or a survey to your audience from time to time can be a fun way to engage with them, audience response–based activities will always be more powerful when they’re designed intentionally into the flow of your program and serve as one element (among many) that helps your learners get to a sufficient level of understanding.
Data
DataIn addition to relying on traditional evaluation tools such as a smile sheet or other formal assessment, many web-based audience response systems allow you to download poll results to use as a data point following a session.
