Managing a Question & Answer Session
Using the Raise Your Hand feature
You can manage a question and answer session using the *5 Raise Your Hand keypad command in conjunction with the Live Conference Manager or the Host Keypad Commands. Callers who “raise their hands” by pressing *5 are entered into a queue in chronological order, allowing the host to call on each in succession, un-muting one caller at a time to ask a question. When used with Presentation Mode (where all non-Hosts are muted), this gives a host full control over speaking privileges.
Manage Q&A With Live Conference Manager
Place the conference in Presentation Mode (mutes all non-Hosts) and ask callers to press *5 (star-five) on their keypad if they want to ask a question. (They can “lower” their hand by pressing *5 a second time.) When at least one hand is raised, the queue is displayed above the caller list. You can re-order the queue with the “drag and drop” action. (Click and hold, move to the new position, then release.) Alternatively, you can check the caller's box at left, then press the Remove, Front, Up, Down or Back buttons.
Pressing the caller's Select button un-mutes that caller, allowing them to speak. Note that the selected caller will hear “Line un-muted” after being selected, so you should wait a couple of seconds before addressing the selected caller. While the caller is selected, you can apply the following actions:
- Mute – Mutes caller. (Button will change to “Un-Mute”, so you can un-mute for a follow-up question.)
- Done – Mutes caller and removes from queue (lowers hand), but does not select the next caller in the queue.
- Return – Mutes caller and returns them to the queue. (This allows them to be re-selected later for a follow-up question.)
The most-common procedure is to click the Select button for the next caller. This also mutes and removes the previously selected caller. If there are no callers left in the queue, click the Done button for the selected caller to end the Q&A session.
Manage Q&A With Host Keypad Commands
If you do not have access to the Live Conference Manager, you can use the Host Keypad Commands to manage the Q&A session. Place the conference in Presentation Mode by pressing *41 (mutes non-hosts), and ask callers to press *5 on their keypads to raise their hands. Without using the Live Conference Manager, you won't know whose hands are raised, but you can un-mute the raised hands one at a time in chronological order using these keypad commands:
| *47 | Select Next Raised Hand | Un-mutes the next caller, and mutes the previously-selected caller. To move to the next raised hand, press *47 again. If there are no more raised hands, you will hear, “There are no more raised hands.“ |
|---|---|---|
| *48 | Raised Hand Count | This plays a private announcement to the host indicating the current number of raised hands. |
| *49 | Lower All Hands | Lowers all Raised Hands and resets the queue. |
Simple Polling. You can use the Raised Hand feature to poll participants during the conference. Invite callers to press *5 to agree with a proposal, then press *48 to hear the count, then press *49 to lower all hands and reset the count. (Press *# to hear the count of all active callers in the conference.)