There are commercial, open-source, cloud-based tools that allow responses from the audience using a range of personal computing devices such as cell phones, smartphones, and laptops.
Results are instantly tabulated via the internet and presented on screen in real-time, including grading the "correct" answer if desired.
Some services offer presenters real time moderation for open-ended responses or questions prior to displaying them on screen.
Depending on the presenter's requirements, the data can be collected anonymously, or it can be traced to individual participants who have created accounts in advance of the poll.
The tendency to answer based on crowd psychology is reduced because unlike hand raising, it is difficult to see which selection others are making.
Typically, the results are instantly made available to the participants via a bar graph displayed on the projector or viewed in a web browser for some systems.
[citation needed] This early ARS was used by ASI's clients– major motion picture and television studios and advertising agencies– to evaluate the effectiveness of what they wanted to accomplish: for example, selling more products, increasing movie ticket sales, and achieving a higher fee per commercial slot.
ASI would give out free tickets on the street to bring people into the theater, called the "Preview House" for particular showings.
In 1976, ASI upgraded their system to become fully digital, have Yes/No buttons and, in some cases, numeric keys for entering in numbers, choices and monetary amounts.
Simmons immediately saw practical applications for it in large corporate meetings to allow people to air their true opinions in anonymous fashion.
Thus (something approximating) the group's true consensus would be known, even though individual middle managers or aspiring junior executives would not have to jeopardize their conformity to effect this result.
Although business was strong for this fledgling company,[15] the command-and-control management style of the day proved a formidable opponent to this new tool, which promoted consensus building.
[16] In his memoir, Simmons describes how junior-executive sales prospects tended to like the idea, imagining themselves heroically speaking truth to power (but not paying any price for being a maverick).
Audience Response technology has evolved over time, moving away from hardware that required extensive wiring towards hand held wireless devices and small, portable receivers.
Another example of this is Microsoft's Mouse Mischief, a PowerPoint add-in, which has made it easier for teachers, professors, and office professionals to integrate Audience Response into their presentations.
In 2009, Derek Bruff, a professor at Vanderbilt University, published Teaching with Classroom Response Systems: Creating Active Learning Environments.
Two primary technologies exist to transmit data from the keypads to the base stations: infrared (IR) and radio frequency (RF).
A few companies also offer Web-based software that routes the data over the internet (sometimes in a unified system with IR and RF equipment).
After each question, the educator is able to instantly show the results of any quiz, for example in the form of histogram, creating rapid 2-way feedback about how well learners are doing.
[22] Ideal for large group environments, RF systems can accommodate hundreds of voters on a single base station.
Some advanced models can accommodate additional features, such as short word answers, user log-in capabilities, and even multi-site polling.
If the facilitator's computer is also Wi-Fi-enabled, they can even create their own IP network, allowing a closed system that doesn't depend on a separate base station.
The system allowed registered users to input their responses (positive, negative, neutral) to the address and visualized the results as a trending graph in real time.
The familiarity and widespread use of cell phones and text messaging has now given rise to systems that collect SMS responses and display them through a web page.
They are typically favored by traveling speaking professionals and large conference halls that don't want to distribute, rent, or purchase proprietary ARS hardware.
This eliminates the potential of "guessing-the-correct-answer" syndrome and text mining of SMS responses (to provide the gist of the messages collectively in a visual map).
SMS is still a solid solution because of its penetration and stability, but won't easily allow multi-voting support and might cause problem with multi-country audiences.
These apps invoke available local area networks (LAN) and provide a charge-free and cuts the needs to devoted hardware.
With the GPRS solution the audience does not necessary need to be in the same area as the lecturer as with radio frequency, infrared or Bluetooth-based response systems.