How do you design slides that invite feedback and interaction when you are presenting online? This is a common challenge for many presenters who want to engage their audience and avoid boring them with static slides. In this article, you will learn some tips and tricks to make your presentation interactive online using different tools and techniques.
One of the easiest ways to make your presentation interactive online is to use polls and quizzes to ask your audience questions and get their opinions. You can use online platforms like Mentimeter, Kahoot, or Poll Everywhere to create and share polls and quizzes with your audience. You can also embed them in your slides using PowerPoint or Google Slides. Polls and quizzes can help you check your audience's understanding, spark discussions, and make your presentation more fun and dynamic.
When sharing a poll or quiz, make it easy for people to participate in different ways. Drop the URL link to the poll or quiz in the chat so people can click on the link there if they prefer. Display a QR code so they can use their phone to scan the code and participate on a second device. The more ways you allow people to participate the better chance you have of them completing the poll or quiz.
Another way to make your presentation interactive online is to add animations and transitions to your slides to create movement and visual interest. Animations and transitions can help you highlight key points, show relationships, and guide your audience's attention. You can use PowerPoint or Google Slides to add animations and transitions to your slides, or you can use online tools like Prezi or Canva to create more engaging and creative slides. Animations and transitions can help you make your presentation more lively and memorable.
A third way to make your presentation interactive online is to incorporate videos and audio to your slides to add variety and richness to your content. Videos and audio can help you illustrate concepts, provide examples, and share stories. You can use YouTube, Vimeo, or other online platforms to find and embed videos and audio to your slides, or you can record and upload your own. Videos and audio can help you make your presentation more informative and entertaining.
Remember that a video or audio that has to be transmitted to the platform server and then out to the meeting attendees can suffer from delays along the way. Keep the media segments short to reduce the chance of a delay reducing the impact of the segment. I suggest no more than 60 seconds. The different virtual meeting platforms do not share the audio from your computer by default. In Zoom you need to check the share audio checkbox when sharing your screen. In Teams you need to turn on audio sharing after you have shared the content. In Google Meet you can only share audio if you share a browser window so sharing a media clip in PowerPoint won’t have any audio.
A fourth way to make your presentation interactive online is to use chat and Q&A features to communicate with your audience and encourage participation. You can use online platforms like Zoom, Teams, or Webex to enable chat and Q&A features during your presentation, or you can use external tools like Slido or Socrative to create and manage chat and Q&A sessions. Chat and Q&A features can help you get feedback, answer questions, and build rapport with your audience.
If you want people to use the chat or Q&A to interact during your presentation, let them know up front that you have those panels open on your screen and how you want them to use those features. Then make sure you respond when someone adds a comment or question to demonstrate you will notice and respond to what they add in those panels.
A fifth way to make your presentation interactive online is to break out into groups to facilitate collaboration and interaction. You can use online platforms like Zoom, Teams, or Webex to create and assign breakout rooms for your audience, or you can use external tools like Miro or Mural to create and share virtual whiteboards for group work. Breakout rooms can help you create more engaging and interactive learning experiences, foster peer-to-peer learning, and generate ideas and solutions.
A sixth way to make your presentation interactive online is to gamify your presentation to motivate and reward your audience. You can use online platforms like Kahoot, Quizizz, or Classcraft to create and play games with your audience, or you can use external tools like Badgeville or Bunchball to create and award badges and points for participation and performance. Gamification can help you make your presentation more fun and competitive, increase retention and recall, and improve learning outcomes.