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Introducing the EVS to a new audience

(written by Steve Draper, as part of the Interactive Lectures website)

Here is one possible way of introducing the EVS (electronic voting system), and in particular the PRS IR (infra red) equipment) to a new audience. Below is the script for you, the presenter, to act on; and below that, a slide to use.

Script for the presenter

Comments in (small font and parentheses) are optional: you may or may not make them to your audience. Comments in [italics and square brackets] are for you alone from me.

[Do a head count so you know pretty exactly the number with handsets]

Assuming the handsets have been distributed, and the time (not necessarily the start of the session) has now come to use or comment on them.

I'd like someone in the middle of the audience to stand up please.
[Ideally pick someone who clearly isn't an unnaturally techno-loving expert.]
First thing you have to do is turn the handset on: you'll know it's on when the green light comes on. (You may have to turn it on again each time you use it: they turn themselves off after a while.)
Now point it at any of the receivers with the little red lights on, and press the "5" key.
Note that the receiver's light blinks when it gets a message from a handset.
[Now set PRS going e.g. press "start" but with time high e.g. 5 mins]
Now turn over your receiver and read the 3 digit number on the sticker there. Now again send the "5" to a receiver. See that your number comes up on the screen. (That is how, when everyone is pressing at once, you can tell that your vote has been heard.)
If you change your mind you can re-vote: press "8" now.
[Press "stop" and get the barchart: to show that only the last vote was heard.]
OK, now everyone do it. ...
[State a question e.g. what is the first digit of your age; and press "start" again.]
[Put up the OHP or Powerpoint slide on this for the audience.]
[Make the next points while the voting is going on.]
Notice that the colour of the boxes on screen depend on the last digit of the ID number. And the latest box displayed has a bar on it to pick it out.
If your number doesn't come up when you press, you have to wait a few seconds and then try again. Keeping your finger held down on a button doesn't work.
However please don't keep re-sending your vote unnecessarily once you've seen your number up on the screen as this tends to block other people's votes from being heard.
Is anyone having trouble getting their vote in? Hands up if so.
[Getting to anyone in trouble is important not just for them, but to keep the voting total high, and to identify any problems we haven't understood yet.]
[Keep on until the total received votes is the same as your headcount. This will take longer than you think for the last 20% to straggle in: keep on asking if anyone is having trouble and go to them to help sort out those individuals' problems. They are bad at telling you they are having trouble, and it will take longer than for any of the later votes, but it is worth getting it to work now for every single person. ]
One other thing: you can send your vote as high, low, or medium confidence. If you press "H" before the number key, it sends it as high confidence; "L" for low; the default is medium.
[Perhaps a good idea to do a second question here, but one which is both pretty easy to vote on but relevant to the lecture]

Slide for use during the introduction

Here's an HTML impression of the slide, also ready to print (for an OHP). Should be in powerpoint, sorry.

Using the handsets

A. Check handset is turned on -- green light on?

B. Turn it over and read the 3 digit ID number

C. Point at a receiver (small box with red light on)

Can press H(igh) or L(ow confidence) first

D. Press the number of your choice
-- see your ID come up on the screen

If your ID doesn't come up, wait a few seconds then try again.

Can change your vote, but don't keep sending unnecessarily as you will obstruct others' votes.

Startup questions

The first one or two questions should be something people don't have to think about the answer for e.g.
- What is your the first digit of your age: press "1" for teenagers, "2" for those in their twenties, "5" if you are 50 or over.
- What is the height of this room in metres? Press 1 for 1 metre, 2 for 2 metres, 0 for 10 or more metres.
- How old do you think I am?: press "1" if you think I'm a teenager, "2" for twenties, "6" if you think I'm in my 60s, etc.
"Demographic" questions are also good for many (not all) groups to help them get a feel for the group as a whole e.g. "how many of you are majoring in 1) psychology 2) sociology, ..." or "How many [of you workshop attenders] are 1) teachers 2) technologists 3) researchers 4) here by mistake"
But it is important to have, before the end of the first session, some questions with serious content related to the point of the meeting, or else you get complaints about it being a merely gimmick.

Problems occasionally observed in audience operation of handsets

Don't comment on these to the whole audience, but be aware of them in case you see them. These are all problems that have been seen e.g. 1 in 50 audience members.

Turn handsets back on before use (get green light on again)
Holding the button down doesn't work for re-transmitting a vote that wasn't heard by the equipment the first time.
Must wait a few seconds before re-sending: handset will be "resting" with its light flashing.
Must point the narrow end (with the glass lens) at the receiver, not the other end.
Must point not at the big screen but at a receiver with a red light on.
A receiver is broken: no red light
A handset has failed: no green light
A handset has jammed: green light but it isn't transmitting (can't get a receiver to flash red, can't get the green transmitter light to flash either). Turning it off then back on may clear it; or there is a small hole for inserting a paper clip to reset it.
Spamming: lots of re-sending by some students, which blocks others. You can see this is happening when lots of new boxes with index numbers keep getting displayed, but the total at the top (which shows number of distinct IDs received) doesn't change. Sometimes it's been deliberate; other times students haven't been told not to do it, and perhaps haven't been able to spot that their ID has come up: try telling them about the colour coding of the boxes.

Problems occasionally observed in lecturer operation of PRS

Forgot to press "Start" button
Data projector timed out / not warmed up
Number of options is set to less than the number of responses for the current question: then many are discarded. (So now I usually leave this set to 10.)

The importance of getting every single vote in on the first question(s)

Finally, I just want to repeat the importance, in the first question or two, of being patient and getting every single audience member's vote to register successfully. If it doesn't work for them on the first question, that person will probably never participate throughout the rest of the session or even the course: for them, the moment will have passed when they feel able to ask for help. Furthermore being seen to take such care about this probably sets a valuable tacit precedent that sets everyone up to expect to vote on every question.

In almost every group we have run, about 1 in 50 of the audience fail to get it to work for them despite considerable effort. However we have failed to identify a pattern, either of the type of person or the type of problem. Furthermore hardly anyone ever asks for help (they are seeing hundreds around them succeed without effort) until they have been explicitly asked several times. Even though it feels like it's holding up the whole session, it is really only a few more minutes. Just keep asking until the total distinct handset IDs counted on the screen display matches your count of the people/handsets handed out. Keep asking, search the audience with your eyes, run up and down the aisles (carrying a spare handset or two) to attend to whoever lets slip they have a problem. It may be anything, or even something you can't fix: but usually it's turning the handset on, a handset battery being flat, not pointing the handset at a receiver (but at the screen, or into the head of the person in front of them); not being able to recognise their ID number on the screen.

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