Presentations

This whitepaper introduces DiBL Presentations, a live interactive session format that embeds activities directly into the flow of a presentation. It explains why passive presentations fail, what the research says about active learning, how DiBL compares to tools like Mentimeter, Wooclap, AhaSlides, and Slido, and provides a practical guide to the three ready-to-use presentation templates available in DiBL.

Most presentations fail not because the content is poor but because the format is broken. Audiences sit passively, processing information at a fraction of their capacity, while the presenter hopes the slides are engaging enough to hold attention. By the time the session ends, retention is low and the sense of connection between presenter and audience is superficial.

DiBL Presentations change this. By embedding live interactive activities directly into the flow of a presentation, they turn audiences into active participants: contributing ideas, voting on positions, answering questions, and shaping the direction of the session in real time.

The Learning Science

Active Learning

The evidence for active learning over passive instruction is clear. Freeman et al. (2014) analysed 225 studies and found that students in active learning classes performed significantly better and were 1.5 times less likely to fail than those in traditional lectures. Active learning does not just improve engagement: it changes outcomes.

The mechanism is well understood. Active processing forces learners to engage with material at a deeper cognitive level than passive reception. Chi and Wylie (2014) categorise learning from passive (listening) through active (note-taking) and constructive (generating explanations) to interactive (dialogue and debate). Each level produces progressively stronger learning.

Audience Response Systems

Research on audience response systems consistently shows improvements in engagement, learning, and satisfaction (Kay and LeSage, 2009; Trees and Jackson, 2007). When participants know they will be asked to respond, they attend more carefully. When they see their answers compared to the room, they reflect more deeply.

DiBL Presentations go further by giving facilitators control over when and how to reveal results, creating deliberate moments of surprise, comparison, and discussion rather than just data collection.

The Dialogic Principle

Research on dialogic teaching (Alexander, 2017) shows that learning deepens when ideas are publicly shared, questioned, and extended through structured conversation. A well-designed DiBL Presentation creates these conditions: participants commit to a position, see how others responded, and engage in facilitated discussion about the differences. This is fundamentally different from a presentation that asks for a show of hands.

What DiBL Presentations Is

DiBL Presentations is a live session format that embeds interactive activities, polls, brainstorms, quizzes, dilemmas, directly into the flow of a presentation. Participants contribute from their own devices in real time, results appear on the shared screen, and facilitators use a live control panel to manage session flow, reveal responses selectively, and shift between views.

Unlike a slide deck with a poll plugin, DiBL Presentations are built around the interaction. The activities are not decorations: they are the structure of the session. A DiBL Presentation typically follows a repeating cycle:

• Present - Facilitator shares content or a scenario on screen, giving participants a clear reference point.
• Respond - Each participant responds on their device, answering questions, making choices, or contributing ideas.
• Reveal - Results appear as visualisations, word clouds, or dashboards. Participants see the collective picture.
• Discuss - Facilitator highlights differences, asks follow-up questions, or introduces new information based on how the group responded.
• Repeat - New content, new activity, new results, new discussion. The presentation becomes a dialogue, not a monologue.

This cycle is invisible to participants. They experience it as a fluid conversation. For facilitators, it is the backbone of every successful interactive presentation.

Who Uses DiBL Presentations

DiBL Presentations are used across education, professional development, and public sector facilitation, wherever a facilitator needs to move a group from passive listening to active thinking.

The Three Presentation Templates

DiBL includes three ready-to-use presentation templates, each designed for a specific facilitation need. You can start any of them directly from the template library in the case builder. Adapt them as a starting point for your own session design.

All three templates are available in the DiBL template library. Sign up free at dibl.eu/sign-up, open the case builder, and choose a template. Your first session takes under five minutes to set up.

Learn more: dibl.eu/presentations

How DiBL Compares

DiBL is purpose-built for facilitated learning. Most interactive presentation tools are designed for presentations: they collect input and display it, but stop there. DiBL connects that input to what comes next, the discussion, the dilemma, the reflection.

Tool	Strengths	Where DiBL goes further
DiBL	Purpose-built for facilitated learning. Presentations connect directly to dilemmas, simulations, and structured reflection in the same session. Three presentation templates, facilitator curation, dual-screen support, and full session design in the case builder.	—
Mentimeter	Industry leader for live audience interaction. Strong word clouds, polls, and Q&A. Clean presenter interface. Widely adopted in corporate and higher education.	DiBL offers deeper facilitator control: selectively revealing responses, managing multiple activity types in one session, and embedding branching elements that Mentimeter cannot support. DiBL sessions are journeys, not slide collections.
Wooclap	Strong real-time audience engagement with PowerPoint integration. Good range of question types. Popular in higher education.	Wooclap is primarily a slide accompaniment tool. DiBL is a standalone facilitated experience platform: sessions can include Dilemmas, Simulations, and Brainstorms alongside standard polls, creating richer learning arcs.
AhaSlides	Affordable interactive slides with AI generation and collaborative activities. Strong free tier.	AhaSlides focuses on fun and ease. DiBL is designed for professional facilitation, with facilitator-only controls, multi-stage session management, and the ability to build complex facilitated learning experiences.
Slido	Widely used for Q&A, polls, and quizzes in meetings and conferences. Strong enterprise integration.	Slido is meeting-focused. DiBL is learning-focused: designed for structured facilitation with pedagogical intent, not just audience input collection during a conference.

The core difference: most tools treat interactive elements as a moment, a slide you add to break up a presentation. DiBL treats them as a process, a structured, facilitated experience with a before, during, and after.

Getting Started with DiBL Presentations

Running your first DiBL Presentation takes under five minutes to set up. Start by converting one section of an existing presentation into a DiBL session. Pick the moment where your audience most needs to be involved, a key decision, a contentious point, or a place where you want to understand the room's current thinking, and build an activity around it.

DiBL works on any device with a browser. No app download required for participants. They join via a session link or QR code, contribute on their device, and see results appear in real time on the shared screen.

Learn more: dibl.eu/presentations

Before the Session

Design your session around questions, not statements. For every key point, ask: what do I want the audience to think or feel about this? Then build an activity that creates that experience.

• Alternate activity types: a quick poll to take the temperature of the room, a brainstorm to surface ideas, a dilemma to generate discussion.
• Plan your facilitation moves: what will you say when results are revealed? What if the room is split? What if everyone agrees?
• Test on the target device type. Phone versus laptop interactions differ in feel and timing.

During the Session

Launch activities at natural transition points, not to fill time, but to create the engagement your content needs.

• Use the hide-results option strategically: asking the audience to predict results before revealing them creates moments of genuine surprise.
• Narrate the results as they appear: "Interesting, over half of you chose X. Let's hear from someone who chose differently."
• Read the room: if energy drops, add an unplanned quick poll. DiBL lets you adapt in real time.

After the Session

The export function turns your presentation from a moment into a record.

• Export participation data for reporting, follow-up, or evidence of engagement.
• Share a visual summary of key results with participants as a session takeaway.
• Use anonymised response data to inform the design of your next session. Where was the most disagreement? What did the group struggle with?

Continue Reading

Build It Yourself

Ready to create your own interactive presentation in DiBL? Our builder guide walks you through page layout, containers, the dual-screen setup, and content blocks step by step.

• Whitepaper 9: Building Presentations - How to Build with DiBL Series

More in the Ways to Use DiBL Series

• Whitepaper 1: Brainstorms - Facilitated brainstorming with simultaneous digital input
• Whitepaper 2: Dilemmas - Facilitated decision-making through branching scenarios
• Whitepaper 4: Quiz and Mini-Games - Knowledge checks with scoring and gamification
• Whitepaper 5: Simulations - Multi-round scenarios with variables and consequences
• Whitepaper 6: Survey and Polls - Real-time data collection and evaluation

References

• Alexander, R. (2017). Towards Dialogic Teaching: Rethinking Classroom Talk (5th ed.). Dialogos.
• Chi, M. T. H., and Wylie, R. (2014). The ICAP Framework: Linking cognitive engagement to active learning outcomes. Educational Psychologist, 49(4), 219-243.
• Freeman, S., et al. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. PNAS, 111(23), 8410-8415.
• Kay, R. H., and LeSage, A. (2009). Examining the benefits and challenges of using audience response systems. Computers and Education, 53(3), 819-827.
• Trees, A. R., and Jackson, M. H. (2007). The learning environment in clicker classrooms. Learning, Media and Technology, 32(1), 21-40.