Boost Training Effectiveness with an ARS

Day after day, it becomes more and more difficult to absorb and retain information as we are continually bombarded with advertisements, news stories, or daily gossip from friends or coworkers. This makes the job for trainers increasingly difficult, especially when conducting group training.

Fortunately, audience response technology provides a solution that addresses these issues!

One of the most effective ways for a trainer to engage participants and boost retention to improve adult learning is through the use of audience response technology. Audience response systems boost the effectiveness of training programs by allowing presenters to target the specific tools and topics that participants need while validating their understanding of the materials. They can also be used as effective corporate training tools.

Here are a few key ways that you can boost attentiveness and retention in your training program:

1. Pose an interactive question every 8 to 12 minutes in your instructional presentation. Trainers should break up their presentation every 8 minutes or so with some type of interactive activity to help trainees better retain the presented materials. Participants will pay closer attention and will be interested to see how their responses fit with those contributed by peers.
2. Pose an interactive question after teaching a major concept.  Immediately display the results. Foster discussion about the wrong answer choices to help promote better understanding.
3. Use Audience Polling as a method of analyzing and comparing learning results. If a significant number of participants have failed to master a concept, provide another example of the concept and teach it a second time. Poll the group a second time and do a pre-post comparison of learning results. 
4. Schedule a class review session. Use the interactive system to provide participants an opportunity to indicate which topics are of specific interest to them. Allocate review time accordingly.
5. Use the interactive system to quiz participants. Afterwards, provide scored printed results back to participants showing each question and the correct answer so they can direct their individual review efforts toward those learning points that require more work.

In addition, electronic polling devices provide trainers with the ability to obtain real-time feedback so that they can adjust their presentations to the needs of the audience or change the way they are presenting the information. That adaptability saves time and money and improves the training’s effectiveness.

Harold Horowitz, while serving as program director of Educational Technology at IBM, conducted pioneering research at the IBM Learning Center. He found that using an audience response system in training programs increased attentiveness and retention. Improved attentiveness translated into a 27% improvement in test scores. Use of interactive keypads fostered increased participation and improved the amount of material covered during each class session by 15%.

Often, however, we find that audience response technology is being underutilized. People don’t learn all its capabilities or don’t invest enough time to maximize the impact of using the technology to contribute to an organization’s bottom line.

To learn more about the best uses of an audience response system for adult learning programs, click Learn More.