A Unified Communication Platform for Enriching and Enhancing Presentations with Active Learning Components

There exist various audience response systems (ARS) and other standalone solutions to enrich presentations with supplementary active learning content. We propose a unified communication platform for enriching and enhancing presentations with active learning components where third party solutions can easily be integrated via data adapters, activity plug-ins as well as a multi-directional communication channel based on a publish-subscribe pattern. We present how the MindXpres presentation platform has been extended with a communication module and discuss a number of activity plug-ins that have been realised. The presented unified communication platform in combination with the MindXpres presentation tool represents an ideal platform for the investigation and rapid prototyping of new forms of presentations that support enhanced forms of interaction between a presenter and their audience.