A novel standard-compliant audience response system for medical education

Audience response systems (ARSs) have been suggested as a means to improve the effectiveness of didactic lectures, but their widespread use has been limited because of cost and complexity. The authors developed a simple, cost-effective ARS that relies completely on standard networking technology, is embedded easily into a PowerPoint presentation, and operates without the need for extensive server setup and configuration. A PowerPoint Add-in that capitalizes on WiFi (wireless fidelity) technology was created that allows lecturers to easily add interactive question and response slides to an existing PowerPoint presentation. In the system, audience members can submit responses by using any wireless network-enabled device (eg, laptop computer, cell phone). The system was designed to be easy to use, to be standard compliant, and to eliminate the high operating costs associated with current interactive ARSs.