Engaging your Audience
Get the audience involved by asking questions. Spewing knowledge can be boring, but helping your audience to discover the answers will keep them engaged.
You can ask yes/no questions to quickly "poll" the audience and encourange a larger group response, or more open ended questions if you are looking for more detailed answers for smaller group involvment.
I have heard the more yes answers you can get your audience to provide, the more persuasive your presentation will be. Is that true?
I don't know about using this technique in presentations specifically or generally, but finding points of agreement and getting yes answers is a very powerful sales tool and if you were to look at your presentation as "selling" the information you are presenting as well as yourself as the presenter you could probably
use it very effectively by asking the right
questions.
One of my favorite teaching quotes has got to be "Teaching is not a recitation of facts." If all you do is real off information, the audience will get bored quickly.
It works for sales because you keep them interested so I suppose keeping the audience interested is ideal!
I just started a new class I am having a very hard time getting them to speak up or give me any feedback.
When I ask them if they have questions they never do. When I ask them questions no one volunteers. Any advice?
I like to isolate students randomly, asking them specific questions. I praise them greatly when they answer (right or wrong) to encourage future participation. This builds rapport and creates a safe learning environment. It's all about respect.
How long are you waiting for them to answer? It is uncomfortable, but you need to pause for 5-10 seconds before assuming they do not know the answer. It takes some students longer than others to answer questions and they may just be collecting their thoughts. If after 1o seconds or so you don't see any sign of response, prod them a little with hints or additional information
thank you thats great advice
That's a good point. I haven't heard of that, but it seems to make sense that if you can get the audience to be on "your side" it certainly will help your presentation.
I find that people love to talk about themselves so I ask questions that are open ended or ask them what personal experiences they have had.
I try to "engage" my students during powerpoint presentations/lectures by asking questions on the material that is on the present slide. All they have to do is look at the slide to see the answer. Typically I "lecture" some of the material and then show the powerpoint after that. Then I move on to the next "area" to be discussed and after that I review with the powerpoint. I ask them to find the answer on the present slide if they cannot "recall" it initially. Some days they are really involved and easily engaged and other days they seem to have mentally "checked" out and then I really struggle to get them involved.
