Enhance the Instructiveness of Lectures with Audience Response Systems

Enhance the Instructiveness of Lectures with Audience Response Systems

An audience response system, ARS, offers an incredible way of infusing interaction into a conventional didactic lecture format, improving student learning and collaboration. An ARS can be used in a myriad of ways, facilitating both large and small groups. It can be used to assess the skills, knowledge levels, and opinions of the audience as well as to verify attendance at a lecture.

Over the years, the technology behind ARS has witnessed a significant improvement. This technology up-gradation has resulted in systems that are easier to use and less costly. In this blog, we will understand what exactly is an audience response system as well as learn about its various applications to teaching and learning.

Understanding Audience Response Systems

An audience response system is a tool that brings together hardware and software to enhance the interactiveness of an event or lecture. It enables the spokesperson to communicate with the audience by gathering and analyzing responses to associated questions.

A plethora of slide and polling software are available in the market that helps to determine whether the audience is struggling with a topic or understanding it. Based on the result, the speaker can easily modify the lecture on the fly. With this software, there is no more sitting around and hoping for the surveys to come in after the event as you can survey your attendees right away.

Applications of ARS to Teaching and Learning

The use of an ARS related to learning, teaching, and assessment are widespread and applicable in a wide array of situations. Here are some typical applications of an ARS within a classroom.

1. Gauging and Improvising

With an ARS, the speaker can easily gauge student understanding at any point during the lecture. There are plenty of strategies that can be used for obtaining different types of information. For instance, the speaker can use the ARS to pose questions at the beginning of the lecture to determine the audience’s familiarity with the previous lecture.

Alternatively, the speaker can make use of surveys to collect feedback immediately after the lecture to gather significant insights and know whether the audience has understood and found the information helpful.

To make the session more interactive, the speaker can ask questions in a trivia-style format using an ARS to gauge comprehension and information retention.

2. Level of engagement

Asking the audience to answer questions within the system allows them to engage with the content and spark discussions. Besides, it decreases the number of times when an instructor asks a question and gets a minimal response. With improved participation, the speaker can easily obtain accurate feedback from the class as a whole.

3. Provoking true thoughts and opinions

With an online voting tool, it is easy to determine what the audience truly feels about a specific situation, while enabling them to maintain complete anonymity. These tools enable the audience to interact and provide opinions without the fear of being judged. Consequently, the speaker receives much more precise feedback from the listeners.

There is a number of ARS accessible, and you can easily choose one according to your needs. Availing these tools will ensure that you keep your audience engaged and promote active learning.

Meridia helps meeting planners, speakers, trainers and educators integrate interactive, online and offline audience response systems into their events, presentations, and training sessions.