Audience Response System

But how do you keep your audience engaged? Do you clap your hands and beg for attention? Include funny cat GIFs? Work on putting together a tight 15-minute standup routine?

Nope. None of the above (though a nice comedy routine wouldn’t hurt.) If you’re serious about engagement you need audience response software (ARS) to add interactivity and get folks more involved in the action.

What Is Audience Response Software?

Audience response software allows for real-time interaction with live audiences through surveys, polls, Q&As and quizzes. These tools empower presenters and organisers to transform static events into interactive sessions that engage attendees and allow them to share their ideas and insights on the fly.

The way it works is simple. When you’ve got an audience response software set up, attendees can use their laptops or smart devices to submit questions or respond to cues (say, a short poll or quiz that appears after you’ve covered a certain topic) alongside the main event.

This second screen experience keeps audiences interested and lets presenters concentrate on exactly that: presenting. It comes in handy whether you’re hosting a huge online conference, an in-person educational seminar or just want to collect feedback during a staff meeting.

While audience response software used to be limited to actual buzzers that were handed out to audience members to collect responses, the tech has long since moved to the cloud. Audiences simply follow a link from their own devices and are ready to get started immediately.

So what should you look for with audience response software? There are a few main features:

• Real-time voting/response support
• Accessible through a web browser or mobile devices
• Stats and results displayed visually
• In-depth analytics on audience responses and engagement

Important note: when we hear “audience” we usually think of the large audience of a TV show or event. Audience response software isn’t restricted to large audiences. It’s used by educators and workplaces for a variety of use cases—from interactive presentations to trivia.

Why Use Audience Response Software?

Two words: “audience engagement”. Yep, it might sound like a modern marketing buzzword, but it’s something we’ve known the importance of since Socrates was holding the ancient equivalent of TED talks in the Lyceum of Athens.

It’s not enough just to talk at people. Your audience needs to be able to express themselves. To clap and cheer and boo and hiss. This has always been a part of live entertainment and events, whether it’s a crowd cheering a broadway show or a university class falling asleep in a lecture.

Audience response software gives audiences more tools to express themselves with. It provides new ways to interact and stay engaged—and transforms in-person or remote events of any type from a single flow of information into a collaborative experience.

The benefits are twofold: audiences stay engaged through asking questions, prompting debate and sharing opinions, while event organisers, presenters or educators can provide a better experience for attendees (or students.) You’ll be able to boost engagement and make your events a resounding success.

The best part? Audience response software is easy to set up. There’s no need to invest in costly hardware or master complex apps—all you need is a web connection.

That’s where Paperform comes into the picture. With our diverse platform, event professionals and presenters of any kind can easily build their own custom audience response software for a diverse array of use cases, including:

Education and e-learning

By implementing a response software into your in-person or virtual learning environment you can save time, keep students involved and make learning simpler.

For starters you can create custom quizzes and lessons based on your curriculum—and even add interactive videos to aid comprehension. Want a more inclusive learning environment? Give students unique assessments based on their abilities, then grade the results with real-time data.

Using a combination of in-person and distance learning? No problem. Our platform is flexible, so students and teachers can access Paperform from any device and pick up where they left off.

Hiring and interviews

An interactive hiring form is actually an extension of audience response software. That’s right, your candidates are the audience and you, the interviewer, are the presenter.

You can create a responsive form that guides candidates through the hiring process. Ask short or long-form questions, run tests, set up activities to test competencies and put it all together to build a more intuitive interview workflow.

Then once the interview is over you can share data with internal stakeholders and even request feedback from candidates. Take the hard work out of interviews; build a system that does it for you.

Interactive quizzes and questionnaires

The bread and butter of any audience response system is the ability to run interactive quizzes, questionnaires and polls with your audiences in real-time. While you present you can gauge reactions and collect comments to boost interaction.

This is also a great way to crowdsource questions or even run full Q&A sessions. Spark debate, build deeper connections with your audience and seek feedback. All in real-time and broken into visually engaging data that’s easy to unpack.

Webinars, podcasts and digital presentations

Don’t just let your audience be faceless numbers on a dashboard—give them a voice. Using an audience response platform allows you to better interact with viewers, receive comments and questions as you present and turn a boring presentation into an engaging experience.

Whether you’re hosting the hottest new podcasts or running a live webinar, you’ll need data to make sure you’re producing the best product possible. Don’t worry, you can view insights into customer responses and export this data to your favourite tools to better prepare for your next episode.

This is just scratching the surface of what you can do with the right audience response software. The problem is that actually finding the right solution is far from easy. Sure, there are plenty of options out there, from Slido and Mentimeter to Poll Everywhere and Glisser, but the existing solutions suffer from the same core problems:

• They’re very niche (e.g. inflexible and suited for very specific uses)
• Expensive (particularly for small businesses and entrepreneurs)
• Tailored to huge companies (hence the hefty price tags)
• Few tools offer complete all-in-one solutions

So with these problems in mind, we have a better option: building your own custom audience response software with Paperform.

Build Your Audience Response Software With Paperform

With Paperform’s diverse toolset you can have your own unique audience response system up and running in a matter of minutes. Our mission is to democratise digital creation, which means the process is so easy you don’t even need to be tech-savvy to get started.

And rather than relying on third-party solutions that might not provide all the features you need, by using our platform you can create software that’s tailor-made for your needs and designed to reflect your brand. All for a fraction of the standard tools' price.

So, you are now ready to start creating an interactive and engaging experience for your attendees.

Getting Started

It is now time for you to harness the power of Paperform to create an audience response system tailored to you. If you do not have a Paperform account, you can easily sign up for a free trial (no Credit Card details are required).

Once you have signed up, head to the interactive course form template and click “Use this template”. Easy right?

Note that the template we are using relates directly to an educational portal; however, it can easily be edited to suit any use case. You can, of course, start with a blank canvas; however, using a template is a great way to familiarise yourself with the Paperform platform and its features.

The Basics

Let us start with the basics; we are going to make some elementary changes, so follow me.

As you can see, the header of the template includes a logo for the ONLINE TRAINING COURSE company. This logo is merely an image that has been uploaded to the form. If you wish to replace or remove, click on the image, and a toolbar will appear above.

Click the picture icon to replace the image with a file of your own, or simply click the 'X' icon to remove it entirely.

📚 Find out more about adding images to your forms.

Below the logo is a heading: OBTAIN YOUR RIGHT TO SERVE ALCOHOL ONLINE. It is simple to edit or remove the form’s heading, and this process is the same for any text throughout the form template. Simply click upon or highlight the text you wish to replace or edit.

You can treat your form editor much like a Word doc. To input text, simply click on the area you wish to place your text and begin typing. To input an image, question field, video or break into your form, merely click in the area you wish to create, and a small toolbar will appear on the left; from this, you can begin adding elements to your form.

📚 Click here to find out more about page and section breaks.

If you head to the top-right corner of your editor you will see a water drop icon, click this to enter the Theme Settings. From here you have the ability to change the look, design and feel. Simple changes such as the background and colour of the text can be made easily by clicking on the colour picker or drop-down menus.

Now let us look at how we can best edit this template to suit your use case.

Education

Teachers, trainers, and professors constantly battle to find the fine line between educational material and engaging material.

Leverage the power of Paperform to quickly create engaging quizzes with absolute control over customizability and functionality.

Question fields

Paperform offers over 20 question field types, ensuring the quiz will be appealing and enjoyable.

📚 Take a look at the question field types Paperform offers.

To create a question field, click on a line in the editor where you want your new question to be - this will often say Type '/' for quick actions.

1. Click on the Add Questions button on the left-hand side of the line.
2. A new question will appear. You can configure the question type with the drop-down menu on the right side of your new question.
3. Enter details like question title, description, etc.
4. Select Configure (the small 'cog' icon) from the options displayed on the right side of your new question to set-up question specific behaviour, such as Conditional Logic.

Please note that each question field type contains different configuration settings and options.

📚 Find out more about question logic.

Scoring feature

Needing to score or assign a value to the answers your students provide?

We have got you covered!

Paperform's Scoring feature allows you to attribute actions (= x - + etc.) and values (1,2,3 etc.) to answers and calculate a total score for submission.

You're able to use logic to determine exactly what answers produce which scores.

The process to set up is simple!

From your editor, head to 'Configuration'> 'Form Behaviour' and scroll until you see the ability to toggle on Scoring.

Thank us later.

📚 Find out more about the Scoring feature.

Events

You have put so much blood, sweat, and tears into organising your events; however, you fail to blow your attendees away.

Stop creating the same stereotypical bore of an event.

Make your event come to life.

Run an interactive event allowing your attendees to ask questions and give feedback. Discover their thoughts, opinions and knowledge on the subject matter.

Q&A and polling

Connecting a Q&A or polling element to your event will bolster engagement, build a level of trust between you and your attendee, and persuade your audience to get involved in live discussions.

If you use an event poll as an exit survey, you will have attendees ready to give an opinion that remains fresh in their minds.

Paperform's Multiple-choice, Scale and Slider question types can be utilised to keep your audience entertained and ensure you receive real-time feedback.

From the editor, click the line where you want your new question to be, then click the Add Questions button you see appears on the left-hand side.

By default, this will create a text field.

Click the dropdown menu you see appear on the right of Text and select one of the 20+ question types offered by Paperform.

Enter a title, description, and the question response options by clicking the gear icon and entering the question's configuration.

Automated emails

When the event comes to an end and your attendees have provided feedback or discussed the subject matter, you want to create a further connection.

Sending an after submission email will ensure that the relationship blossoms.

From the editor, click 'After Submission' > 'Emails'. Then click 'add email'.

We will then use the process of answer piping to determine who receives the after submission email.

On the right-hand side of the 'To' field, you will see an icon of a plus sign and two horizontal lines. Click on this to bring up a dropdown menu of all the question fields within your form. Now, select the email question field.

Boom, now finish creating the email and click Add Email.

Superstar.

When an attendee completes a successful submission, an email will be sent directly to the email address they provided.

Hiring

Creating a responsive application form with Paperform is the fastest way to have prospective candidates progress through the hiring and assessment processes.

Hiring a new team member = a colossal amount of work.

During the hiring process, you sacrifice a lot of time, time that could be otherwise directed toward your already massive list of ongoing tasks.

Filtering through the long list of unqualified applicants is something that visits us in our nightmares.

Once you finally examine that list, you still need to communicate with your colleagues about the candidates that fit the job criteria.

Conditional logic

Use conditional logic to build a more intuitive hiring process that will interactively draw out those unqualified candidates.

Determine which candidates are unqualified by creating question fields that assess an applicants' skills, experience, and cultural fit. Conditional logic will remove the cumbersome process of filtering through all applicants.

We can use this logic to control when a specific question is visible.

To setup question logic:

• In the form editor, go to the question that you want to hide/show with logic.
• Click on the gear icon to the right of the question (Configure).
• Toggle on ‘Question visibility logic’.
• Add conditions as appropriate to define when the question should be visible.

Note: A required question that is hidden will not prevent the form from submitting.

We also can use logic in page and section breaks to control the visibility of whole chunks of content.

📚 See page and section breaks for more information.

Better yet?

The exact same logic can be used to control whether an email is sent on submission, a particular success page is displayed, or a candidate's details are merged into a Google Sheet or your HR platform.

Integrations

Once the application process is over, you can share data with colleagues and even request feedback from candidates. Take the hard work out of interviews; build a system that does it for you.

This template can be integrated with 3000+ apps, which means that your collected data can be merged automatically with the platform of your choice. So whether you'd like all your data to be available in a spreadsheet, or if you need your applicants' details to be connected with an app like Workable, it'll only take 2 minutes for you to make it happen.

There are several ways you can connect your audience response system with other apps and platforms: Direct Integrations, Zapier, Integromat, or if you are a developer - Webhooks.

Let us look at another example — how we can connect our form with Workable:

• In the editor, go to ‘After Submissions’ > ‘Integrations & Webhooks’.
• Scroll to the bottom and click on Zapier.
• In the search bar, type Workable and click on the icon.
• Follow the prompts to connect a Zapier account; you may need to create an account (their free plan allows you five Zapier connections at no cost).
• You can then trigger a submission to create a new candidate within your Workable account.
• Select the data you want to be merged into your Workable account and Finish Setup.

Each time you receive a successful submission, the data you selected to be merged into Workable will automatically do so.

📚 Find out more about Paperform's possible integrations.

Presentations

Using an audience response system allows you to interact with viewers, receive comments and feedback on your presentation and gain further insight into your audience.

You can export these insights with colleagues and your favourite tools to ensure you are ready for your next session and continue creating quality experiences.

The fear of asking irrelevant questions or making stupid comments in front of a large audience will be eliminated, enticing your audience to engage further.

Feedback and surveys

With Paperform's toolset, you can create beautifully branded surveys and feedback forms to match your presentation.

Understand your viewer's expectations and how well your presentation conveyed the intended points.

Was your presentation a success?

Editing the question fields of the interactive course form template is as easy as pie.

Click on the dropdown menu you see appear on a question field to change the type of question field.

You can replace the question title and include a question description.

Configure any question field by selecting the gear icon to the right of it.

Paperform reporting and analytics

The power wielded by Paperform seems endless.

Using the toolset provided by the platform is the easiest way to collect and analyze data securely and conveniently.

Aggregate the data and feedback of your viewers with visual and beautiful reporting and analytics.

Reporting and submission data

You can access submission data from your dashboard and export results as CSV, PDF, or Word Docs.

To view the submission data and reporting of a specific feedback form or survey, find the correlating form within your dashboard and click the Submissions button to enter the submissions page.

From the submissions page, you can enter Reporting by selecting it from the left-hand navigation menu.

From here, your submission results are visualised with charts and graphs, allowing you to understand the percentage breakdown of responses instantly.

Analytics

Paperform is the easiest way to collect and analyse form data securely and conveniently. Our robust Analytics menu presents results in an easy-to-use dashboard.

Gain insight into your performance and success.

Paperform analytics comes with the Pro and Agency plans and can be accessed from the submissions page of a form.

You can view the following insights from Paperform's Analytics:

• Views: the number of times the form has been viewed
• Started Submission: the number of times the form has started being answered
• Submitted Form: the number of times the form has been submitted successfully
• Completion Rate: the percentage of people who began answering the form and submitted it

As well as offering our own in-app analytics, you also have the option to connect your Google, Pixel, or Custom Analytics tool.

📚 How do I set up custom analytics scripts?

Final Checklist

Before you begin sharing and start registering attendees. You will want to ensure you do the following:

1. Edit the form title, description, cover image, and custom URL under ‘Configure’ > ‘Details’
2. Customise the submission page message under ‘After Submission > Success Pages & Redirect’
3. Enable a payment account if you wish to receive payments under 'Configure' > 'Payments'

Also, Take a look at the Custom Pricing rules feature.

While you are editing the submission page, I suggest taking a look at Dynamic Success Pages.

You can get the URL or embed code of your form under the ‘Share’ menu in the form editor.

Put Through A Test Submission

Well, look at that.

You have customised the system to suit you.

Now let’s take a look at the front-end of your store and run a test.

In the top-right corner, you will see an eye icon; click this to view the live mode.

Take a look to see everything is in working order and make the necessary changes.

Well, you are done!