Training and development is an essential component for most businesses, whether it be for internal staff, upper management or external training of clients on how best to use the goods or services your company offers.

The challenge trainers face is to ensure the group or audience gains the most they can from the training session and are engaged to learn and retain the information conveyed to them.

Technology today offers many tools to assist trainers. PowerPoint® has been the presentation tool of choice used by trainers all over the world for many years. While PowerPoint® seemed like a great evolution, we have now become all too familiar with the phrase “Death by PowerPoint^®.” So where did we go wrong?

Research has shown that in order for deep learning to occur over surface learning we need to be actively engaged and involved in the learning process.
This being the case the standard practise of ‘Lecturing’ to your audience is no longer enough. So how do we engage our audience and ensure they become active participants, rather than the traditional passive note-takers (or one of those who nods off at the back of the room!)?

Group and Audience response systems (GARS) have been available for some time now but have previously been prohibitive in their cost, ease of use and portability. This has all changed, with, small, affordable, plug and play systems now available. Education and Training in the UK and US have embraced this technology for some time, with positive results being realised.

In the Dubai Media City a company known as Satellite is paving the way for the use of this technology in conferences, education and training. Systems are now being utilised by Conference organisers, Secondary schools, Universities and organisations such as Deloitte and others to realise their education, training and development goals.

GARS utilise small individual wireless keypads, similar to those used by the audience in “Who wants to be a Millionaire.” The use of these keypads allows each participant to respond to questions, anonymously, and see an overall real time display of the classes’ responses. The questions themselves are created with software that directly adds into PowerPoint®, thus making the system very easy to use by anyone already familiar with creating PowerPoint® slides.

The result is that what looks like a PowerPoint® presentation is something much more exciting. The audience interact with the content on screen instead of staring at it passively.

Lecturers and Trainers already embracing this technology have found that participants are more open to interaction with each other as they discuss the various alternatives.
The trainer/lecturer is thus creating a conversation with the group as opposed to a lecture at the group; research shows that actively engaging your audience in this way significantly increases memory retention.

The Queensland University of Technology recently conducted a two semester long trial using Gars with promising results. 91% agreed or strongly agreed that they experienced deeper learning as a consequence of the discussion that followed the questions. 90% agreed or strongly agreed that if facilitated critical thinking.

An added advantage of the use of GARS is the ability to automatically track and collate individual’s responses and the overall data, saving valuable time once wasted on the administrative task of manually entering data. Accurate data can be accessed at the click of a button and Excel® spreadsheets created which can allow for cross-tabulation of results i.e. Tracking different demographic groups and their responses.

Research has shown the benefits of utilising a group and audience response system in Education and training include, encouraging participation, improving understanding, increasing retention and adding excitement and enthusiasm to traditional education and training methods.

In this fast paced and changing world we need to embrace tools such as GARS which enable us to provide environments for learning that appeal to all walks of life and learning styles. We can no longer rest on our laurels and be content to continue to do things the way we always have, and why should we or would we want to when we have such valuable tools available to assist us?

People wishing to enquire about the system can call Satellite in Dubai Media City on +97143914840