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Technology Articles and Resources for Teaching

Accessibility and the Respondus LockDown Browser

Posted on by Bruce Richards

The university’s license of the Respondus LockDown Browser allows faculty to offer another method for secure online testing for students.  This secure online testing means that  students will not be able to print, copy and paste information, access another web sites unless it is part of a quiz question, or access other applications on  their computers.

When an assessment is started, students are locked into it until they submit it for grading.  For faculty and students who need to access a test/quiz using the LockDown Browser while using a screen reader such as JAWS, all function F keys and tab keys will be locked.

Instructions for Faculty:

Once in the test/quiz page, students using screen readers must be made aware of the following:

  • All F keys (function keys) and tab keys will be locked
  • If they choose to save each answer after making their choice, a dialog box will pop-up—JAWS will not read this but all they need to do is press Enter

To provide an easy method of taking the test, faculty should do the following:

  • Move the test/quiz to the top of the content page so that students will not have far to arrow down OR
  • Create a Course Link in the menu area of Blackboard and attach the test/quiz. This link will allow the student to go straight to the test. Advise the student of this location
  • Ensure that the Respondus LockDown Browser enabled test opens in the existing window. JAWS will lose screen focus of the test if it opens in a new window
  • Advise the student that the test will need the Respondus LockDown Browser. That way they know ahead of time to use the LockDown Browser to take the test

Instructions for Students:

Once in the test/quiz page, students using screen readers should be aware of the following:

  • The JAWS application must be started first before opening the LockDown Browser
  • If using the ZoomText application, you must start the application before opening the LockDown Browser
  • The LockDown Browser toolbar only has available Forward, Refresh, Back, and Stop buttons
  • The entire computer screen will be locked and cannot be minimized, or refreshed
  • If the student tries to exit out of the test before completion, their access to the test will be lost and grades will not be submitted
  • The address bar in the LockDown Browser will not be displayed

To read the page students will need to use:

  • Arrow keys to read up, down, right, and left
  • Ctrl and home will move to top of page
  • Ctrl and end key will move to bottom of page
  • Pressing the letter “E” will jump to the answer box
  • Pressing the letter “C” will jump to any combo boxes

 

Features of the Respondus LockDown Browser:

 

  1. Modified Toolbar – the condensed toolbar includes only Forward, Back, Refresh and Stop functions.
  2. Test Mode – tests are shown full-screen and cannot be minimized, resized, or exited until submitted for grading.
  3. Disabled Controls – all printing, keystroke combinations, screen grab, function keys, and right-click menus have been disabled.
  4. Links – links to other web servers will open in a new, secure window and prevent browsing beyond that page.
  5. Blocked Features & Applications – the Start button (Windows), system tray, and menu bars have been removed.

 

We encourage faculty and students who will need assistive technology support with the Respondus LockDown Browser to contact:

Megan O’Rourke M.A., M.S., COMS
Coordinator – Assistive Technology Services		 Instructional Designers
Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning
Phone:  417-836-8813 Phone:  417-836-3059
mailto:meganorourke@missouristate.edu mailto: instructionaldesign@missouristate.edu
http://www.missouristate.edu/equity/ats/ http://www.missouristate.edu/fctl/instructionaldesign.htm
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Blackboard 8.0 Course Content

Posted on by Bruce Richards

This is an important announcement that we ask all Missouri State University faculty who have course content still on Blackboard 8.0 to play close attention.

Important Information about Blackboard Learn 9.1:
Missouri State University upgraded to Blackboard Learn 9.1 on Saturday, May 21, 2011. Faculty members can log in to Blackboard 8.0 to access previous course content until January 31, 2012. If you desire to retain content from Blackboard 8.0 courses you taught previously, you must migrate content from your Blackboard 8.0 courses to Blackboard Learn 9.1. Instructions for completing this process can be found on the page ”migrating your course content from Blackboard 8.0 to Blackboard Learn 9.1“.

To make this transition as seamless as possible, Computer Services offers one-on-one assistance during “Build Your Course” workshops scheduled every Friday from 1:30 – 5:00 pm in Library 205. No registration is necessary for these workshops; simply attend when convenient.

Information on migrating your course content from Blackboard 8.0 to Blackboard Learn 9.1.

If you need any support on migrating your content, contact us at InstructionalDesign@missouristate.edu or Computer Services Helpdesk.

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Web Conferencing Guidelines

Posted on by Bruce Richards

Here at Missouri State University, Adobe Connect is the preferred tool for web conferencing. Adobe Connect can be used for multiple situations such as:

  • For faculty evaluation of student learning
  • Interview for job positions
  • Course Discussions
  • Presentations (webinars)
  • Negotiation exercises
  • Tutorials and problem-solving
  • Software Demonstrations, and
  • Simulations

As with all web-based presentations, there are preliminary arrangements that presenters and host of these meetings must put in place towards having a successful and meaningful meeting.  Here are some ideas and guidelines that I believe will help faculty and staff as they develop their own web conferences and webinars.

Guidelines:

  1. Do a trial run before the actual presentation. Helps to reduce surprises. Also log into your session as a participant and see the presentation from your students’ perspective to gauge the presentation. Load your slides and click through them, testing any add-on features, like animations, video clips, and links.  Test the desktop sharing, and play with the various options: full-screen browse, allow participants to browse separately, and so on. Know how to change the poll format and how to activate and clear the polls. Learn how to turn the audio on and off, and how to lock the audio on for long periods of time.  Take a screenshot of the interior of the platform so that you can annotate it later and use it to give participants directions at the beginning of the event.  Learn how to turn the webcam feed on and off.  See if there is any noticeable lag when the webcam feed is on when you are clicking through slides or sharing the desktop.
  2. Provide screenshots of the application and point out the important features useful to the running of the meeting. Show them the different ways you will want them to ask questions.  If there are questions during the presentation, I ask participants to use the text chat.  Send the screenshots to participants before the meeting so that they can familiarize themselves with Adobe Connect.  At the end of the presentation, I take audio questions.
  3. Encourage all participants to enter room at least 15 minutes before start to test connection and audio. Arrive early to your room before participants so that you can immediately address any concerns and potential technical problems.
  4. Introduce yourself and identify the main features of the software and meeting room that will be useful for the running of the webinar.  Go through a lesson objective for the webinar ( stating what we are going to do and what we aim to accomplish). Consider sending a copy of your lesson objective before the start of the webinar.
  5. If sharing an application (PowerPoint, Adobe PDF, or Flash video) have the documents already open and available for quick viewing. Do not use long slide presentations.  Reduce text heavy slide. Use visual examples. Use video sparingly. Watch out for lag time using the media rich objects.  Go slowly to ensure all participants will be able to see the presentations.   Any other documents to be used for sharing must be done through desktop sharing.   Load all files early so that they can be easily accessed.
  6. Remind users of netequitte of online collaboration and discussion. You could ask for example, “Give me an example of how you could use this in your professional life.” Give participants sufficient time to respond, summarize, or discuss one or two responses, and then move on.  Speak slowly and delibrately. Having a fellow faculty act as a host to your presentation allows for another set of eyes to watch for participants wanting to ask questions via chat.
  7. The chat function is available for all but the host or presenter should, if needed, type applicable materials relevant to the presentation. All notes typed in the notes section are available to participants. This feature cannot be separate for the participants.
  8. Run your webinar no more than 60 minutes.  If recording the webinar, ensure you have a short script to start before starting the recording.  Ensure that all participants are aware the webinar will be recorded, so that if there are objections these can be addressed.
  9. Prepare to ask participants questions to keep them engaged and involved in the learning. Design a poll (if applicable) to get feedback and responses from participants (using multiple choice or true/false questions).
  10. Use webcam sparingly, at the beginning and at the end. This can be distracting if you are using document and application sharing. This will also affect the bandwidth and timing of the presentation.
  11. At the end of the webinar, prepare a short email message:
    • thanking them for attending,
    • reminding them about the main points (no more than three), and
    • giving them another copy of the hyperlinks that you shared in your presentation.
    • sending the link to the recorded session for later viewing

As with all presentations, practice, practice, and practice.  By using the above suggestions and guidelines, this will afford you the opportunity to making your presentation real for your participants as if it were a face-to-face meeting.

Happy web-conferencing!

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Social Bookmarking: Your Favorites in the Cloud

Posted on by Jo Ann Mattson

With the billions and billions of pages of information on the Internet and millions more added each year, it’s hard to keep up with this information overload. Sometimes when I am trying to find information on a particular topic, I spend hours drifting from one site to the next. I enjoy this on occasion, when I have time to just bounce from one great resource to the next, however, many times I don’t have the luxury of time on my side. I want to find the information in a timely manner. A social bookmarking service is a great way to save links, add a description, organize them with key words or ‘tags’ and then share them with students, colleagues, or anyone in the world with the same interest.

There are several great reasons for using an online (social) bookmarking service. One, it doesn’t matter what computer or browser you are using, your bookmarks are always with you. Before online bookmarking, I had many different lists of favorites or bookmarks. I never knew which computer or browser had the website I needed. With online bookmarking, it’s easy to find my resources.

Secondly, the ‘social’ part of these online bookmarking services promotes collaboration among other professionals, your community or students. This tool makes it easy to post research resources and information your gather for others to explore. For example, I did a search on Diigo on ‘social bookmarking’. It showed my favorites that were tagged social bookmarking. Then I clicked on the popular link and it showed the top bookmarked sites for social bookmarking that others have saved to their favorites (totaling 3042). Many times people will include a short description. This helps me sift through all of them and look at the resources that fit my needs. Delicious has similar features.

Another great feature of online social bookmarking is the ease of saving a particular site to your account. When you sign up for one of the services, you can download an icon to your browser’s toolbar.

 To Save the Website to your Diigo Bookmarks: Choose Bookmark this Page

When you save a particular site to your favorites, you use the TAG button to organize it within your account. TAGS are a means for individuals to organize and describe resources. (See Wikipedia on Folksonomy) They are one word descriptors or keywords that you can assign to your bookmarks to help you organize them. You also can add a short description about the site so that you can quickly look at your favorites (or anyone else’s favorites) to narrow down your search.

Let’s say I am visiting the MSU Instructional Design Website and I want to include this resource to my Diigo account, I simply click on the Diigo  icon and a little window appears.

Here is where I can enter a description, notes and the tags I want to use to organize this page.

Visit our Instructional Design Diigo Library to see what favorites we have saved!

http://www.diigo.com/user/msu-id

Social Bookmarking Applications

Two Top Social Bookmarking Applications:

Diigohttp://www.diigo.com

Delicious  http://www.delicious.com/

Diigo has another great feature! You can add sticky note or highlight websites! Stay tuned to the next Tech Talk Blog Entry to see how these tools can be used with your students and colleagues.

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News from the LMS Market: Blackboard to be acquired by Providence Equity Partners

Posted on by Bruce Richards

Blackboard announced today (7/1/2011) that they would be acquired by Providence Equity Partners.

Providence Equity is the part owner of Education Management Corporation, a for-profit college company that runs Argosy University and the Art Institutes, and it owns Edline, which offers course-management software for elementary and secondary schools.

The acquisition marks Providence’s third education deal in recent years. The private equity firm acquired educational services provider Study Group Pty Ltd. last year. It joined with Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Leeds Equity Partners to acquire for-profit college operator Education Management Corp., which sold shares to the public in 2009.

Over last month various reports from the Chronicle and other news media have indicated that Providence and another equity financial form where interested in acquiring Blackboard. With Blackboard World (Blackboard’s User Conference) coming in July, this news will undoubtably be a leading news on Blackboard.

Read other these interesting news items leading up to the acquisition.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/providence-equity-in-lead-to-buy-blackboard-bloomberg-says/31773

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-15/providence-equity-is-said-to-be-in-lead-to-acquire-blackboard.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2011/06/15/report-providence-leads-blackboard-bids.html

The next question is what does this hold for the future of Blackboard and its likely impact on educational institutions.

We stay tuned.

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Technology Observations and News in Instructional Design …

Posted on by Bruce Richards

As Instructional Designers working with faculty from a wide cross-section of disciplines, we find ourselves constantly discovering new methods and techniques using technology in teaching and learning, as well as dealing with a huge data of technology information that we know can be helpful for face-to-face, blended, and online teaching modalities.

We are going to use this medium and article to present some of the information we think will be helpful and supportive within teaching with technology. Let’s begin!

RESOURCES:

Experts Wiki:

The Computer Services department has created and expanded their Experts Wiki site to include a wide-ranging amount of information on Blackboard Learn 9.1 on documentation for faculty and students. Found at http://experts.missouristate.edu/display/bb9/Home, the Wiki site provides step-by-step details on using many of the feautures within Blackboard 9.1 that is very helpful for faculty and students as they navigate Blackboard based on their roles. As the Instructional Designers meet with faculty, we encourage them to use this as a strong resource tool as they build out their course in Blackboard.

Respondus 4.0 Test Tool:

Respondus is a Windows-based software tool used for creating exams for several different online educational systems, including Blackboard. By utilizing test questions or test pools from book publishers, as well as your own test from a Word document, faculty will be able to easily format their test questions in their Word document, export it into Respondus to further publish it directly to your Blackboard course for student’s assessment.

Within the Wiki site, detailed explanations are providing showing how to use Respondus for exams. Because the university has a campus site license for the software, it is freely available for all faculty to download to their office computer to begin creating and editing exams and surveys. Details on installing and configuring the software is provided as well as a great quick start and user guide.

Adobe Presenter 7:

The Adobe Presenter software is used to create flash-enabled presentations from Microsoft PowerPoint. It allows for audio narrations, animations, video, and quizzes to be added into PowerPoint, and then published as a flash or PDf file for easy access to your content by the students. We are experiencing some challenges with installing the software on new computers that have been formatted as a 64bit computer, because Adobe Presenter only supports 32bit technology. However, the software should install on 64bit computers that have 32bit supported Microsoft Office. You can find information on downloading and installing the Adobe Presenter 7 sofwtare on the Experts Wiki site to address those problems.

ePortfolio:

In a recent conversation the Instructional Designers had, we discussed ways we could support students developing an ePortfolio of their work as they progressed through a particular course.  As we looked at various technology that could be easily incorporated by both faculty and students in creating the resources necessary for this ePortfolio, we itemized the items that the ePortfolio should support. These were:

  • Technology that would be easily available for faculty and students
  • Able to support images, text, videos, audio
  • Able to be viewed by faculty and students
  • Low learning curve

We have identified at least two tools that we will be testing in the coming weeks and will let you know of our progress on this project.

Software Tools:

To say which software tool is perfect for faculty and students to use in the development of multimedia is a daunting task because of the multtplicity of tools in the market place, the cost associated with acquiring them, and the various learning that needs to take place in using them. The Instructional Designers have identified some tools with help from colleges that we have started to research and test.  As we go through the list we need to keep in mind the support and training needs that must take place with whichever tools are chosen. Over the next month, the Instructional Designers will be hosting some virtual training events via Adobe Connect on some of these tools that are already being used on campus. We will be advertising these events, as well as recording them for archival purposed. Stay tuned to the dates and times for the training.

Using Clickers:

As you may have heard the university has implemented a new Clicker technology from a company called  TurningTechnolgoies. More will be said as we get closer to Fall semester on training, implementation and student usage. The clicker works seemlessly with PowerPoint as you integrate responses abd interactie questions as part of experiential learning in the classroom.

Other News:

Problem with pedagogy in Web 2.0: (from Campus Technology)

In a time of knowledge stability, teach; in a time of rapid change in knowledge, learn… Clearly, we have left the time of knowledge stability and entered a time of incredibly rapid change. Web 2.0, a term coined in 2004, is a description of the new Web architecture, but is also a historical marker between the era of comfortable stability and the era of unsettling change. Many in higher education say we have accordingly turned to learning and away from teaching, but in fact we haven’t.

View article…

Is the iPad ready to Replace the printed Textbooks? (from Campus Technology)

Students would be ready to buy their own iPads for use on campus if more of the electronic textbooks they needed were available, according to surveys out of Abilene Christian University.

View article…

Making Education Accessible: (from Campus Technology)

Accessibility for all students is a key concern in IT in higher education, one tied to the core mission of education and underscored by recent federal activity reinforcing the need for compliance in all aspects of technology implementations. Yet institutions are scratching their collective heads over how to make digital information accessible to students with visual and auditory impairments while keeping technology at the cutting edge.

View article…

Wrapping Up

Well, that’s it. Moving forward we will occassionally use this method to present news on various technology and resources that hopefully will be of help as you use technology in teaching and learning. Let us know in your comments the kind of information you would like us to post. Thanks for reading!!

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Adobe Acrobat Professional Version 9 & 10 – Tips for the Beginner

Posted on by Bruce Richards

You may not be an advanced Adobe Acrobat Professional user, but you want to be able to create an interactive PDF document for your class. Adobe Acrobat Professional Versions 9 & 10 has lots of options that can help you create the type of document you want. All of the tips listed below are designed specifically for beginners. If that’s you, give them a try.

To purchase the software for work, see Helpdesk for more information.

Videos: Review Adobe Acrobat Professional 9 and X


Tip #1:  – Save PDF to Word Document

  1. 1.    Use Adobe Acrobat Professional to open a PDF document.
  2. 2.    Click File > Save As
  3. 3.    Within Save As type:, Choose Microsoft Word Document (*.doc) to save/convert your PDF document to a Word document.

Notes:
Save PDF files as Word documents with improved preservation of formatting and layouts. Relative positioning of tables, images, and even multicolumn text is preserved, as well as page, paragraph, and font attributes.

 

Tip #2: – Save PDF to Table to Excel

  1. 1.    Use Adobe Acrobat Professional to open a PDF document.
  2. 2.    Click File > Save As
  3. 3.    Within Save As type:, Choose Tables in Excel Spreadsheet (*.xls) to save/convert a PDF table to an Excel Spreadsheet document.

Notes:
Expedite reuse of content by converting PDF document data to Excel file formats. Even select a portion of a PDF page and export it to an editable format.

 

Tip #3: – Create your own Portfolio

  1. 1.    Open Adobe Acrobat Professional
  2. 2.    Click File > Create PDF Portfolio
  3. 3.    Follow Wizard (Choose Layout, Welcome and Header, Color Scheme, File Details, then Publish)
  4. 4.    Save as PDF Portfolio

Notes:
Quickly assemble a wide range of file types — including audio, video, and rich media content — into a polished, organized PDF Portfolio using the new PDF Portfolio Wizard.

 

Tip #4: – Merge Multiple PDF Documents

  1. 1.    Use Adobe Acrobat Professional to open a PDF document.
  2. 2.    Select File > Combine > Merge Files into a Single PDF
  3. 3.    Add all the other files to merge with existing PDF
  4. 4.    Click Combine Files

Notes:
Converted documents flow into a single PDF as sequential pages

 

Tip #5: – Insert Multimedia in PDF Documents

  1. 1.    Use Adobe Acrobat Professional to open a PDF document.
  2. 2.    Select Tools > Multimedia (choose audio, flash, video, or 3D Tool)
  3. 3.    Size the area for your multimedia file and browse computer or the web for your file
  4. 4.    Save and play your multimedia file.

Notes:
Quickly bring ideas to life through rich, interactive documents. Insert audio, Flash Player compatible video, and interactive media into PDF files, for seamless playback in Adobe Reader X or Reader 9.

 

Tip #6 – Add Native files to your PDF document

  1. 1.    Use Adobe Acrobat Professional to open a PDF document.
  2. 2.    Select Document > Attach a File
  3. 3.    Browse and select your file (E.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)

Notes:
Make sure source files are simple to locate, access, and archive. Attach them to any PDF document in their original, native formats, ensuring a more complete document of record.

 

Tip #7 – Form Wizard

  1. 1.    Use Adobe Acrobat Professional to open a Word document.
  2. 2.    Convert Word document to PDF Fillable Form using Form Wizard (Forms > Start Form Wizard)
  3. 3.    Follow Form Wizard to add form fields or have Adobe automatically detect form fields
  4. 4.    Save Form to start collecting information

Notes:
Easily create dynamic, fillable Interactive PDF forms from paper or existing electronic files. Automatically convert static fields to fillable ones with the Form Wizard.

Distribute forms, track status, and compile results to expedite more accurate information collection.
Streamline data reporting and analysis. Automatically compile form data in a single document or view.

 

Tip #8 – Protect PDF files and documents

  1. 1.    Use Adobe Acrobat Professional to open an existing PDF document.
  2. 2.    Add password and permission to control access to printing, copying or saving of content
  3. 3.    Select Advanced > Security > Show Security Properties
  4. 4.    Choose properties to change

Notes:
Use passwords to help control access to your PDF documents. Apply permissions to restrict printing, copying, or altering.

Use redaction tools to permanently delete sensitive information, including specific text and illustrations.

 

Tip # 9 – Set Accessibility
1.    Use Adobe Acrobat Professional to open an existing PDF document.
2.    Select Advanced > Accessibility > Accessibility Full Check
3.    Select Start Checking

Notes:
The Accessibility Checker can help you identify areas of your documents that may be in conflict with Adobe’s interpretations of the referenced guidelines. However, the Accessibility Checker does not check all accessibility guidelines and criteria, including those in such referenced guidelines, and Adobe does not warrant that your documents will comply with any specific guidelines or regulations.

 

Tip #10 – Add Bookmarks and Set Optimal Viewing Mode

  1. 1.    Use Adobe Acrobat Professional to open an existing PDF document.
  2. 2.    Select Document >  Add Bookmarks
  3. 3.    Set your page at the various points and add Bookmarks

For Initial Screen View:

  1. 1.    Select File > Properties > Initial View tab
  2. 2.    Choose Layout and Magnification
  3. 3.    Choose Window Options
  4. 4.    Choose Interface Options

Notes:
Maximize your screen for optimal reading and presentation of PDF files with the new Reading Mode. Menus and panels disappear, and a transparent floating toolbar appears, to help you navigate PDF files more easily.

 

Tip #11 – PDF Document Reviews and Commenting
1.    Use Adobe Acrobat Professional to open an existing PDF document.
2.    Click Comments > Add Sticky Notes, Highlighter tools, lines and stamps
3.    Save and send to colleagues for review

Notes:
Review and mark up PDF files using a complete set of familiar commenting tools, including sticky note and highlighter tools, lines, and stamps.

 

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Collaboration: What is Adobe Connect?

Posted on by Bruce Richards

In the final Provost Communiqué for Spring 2011 academic year, a faculty was featured in the provost chat section. This faculty will be teaching a business course, on negotiation, mediation and arbitration in fall 2011. The faculty stated that one of the main goals for the course is to maintain the active learning nature of the course. By incorporating negotiation role plays, students would be able to practice their skills via Adobe Connect and then uploading the archive of their discussion to Blackboard.

How can Adobe Connect support this type of event? Adobe Connect is a collaborative tool that is able to provide support for synchronous and asynchronus meetings using two-way communication between participants on both VoIP and telephone audio over the internet. Think Skype. But because the university has a site license, faculty and students are not constrained by cost, or number of participants, and have the ability to share documents, video, audio, desktop, and a interactive whiteboard to conduct virtual classes and create meetings. By creating a meeting room, the faculty is able to provide a meeting space where both students and faculty can “meet” to conduct class meetings, discussions, chats, notes, Q&A, class tutorials, interactive presentations with polls and tests, plus have the ability to record and archive their “meeting” to be later uploaded to Blackboard.

Many faculty at Missouri State University are already utilizing this collaborative tool for class tutorials, problem-solving sessions, discussions and Q&A, and for viewing archived presentations. The above faculty featured in the provost chat will be able to enhance the online experience for his students by creating distinct breakout rooms where students will be able to meet at a time convenient to them and hone their negotiation skills while recording. Once the negotioation has been archived, the faculty will be able to insert a link within Blackboard so that other students can listen to the negotiation and then provide their feedback via the discussion boards. 

In the last post (April 26th, 2011) on this blog, we talked about Adobe Presenter that is presentation tool that works seemlessly with PowerPoint. Adobe Presenter allows for your PowerPoint presentation to be saved as a Flash file or PDF file, that is easily inserted into Adobe Connect for your document presentation. With Adobe Presenter, Adobe Connect is able to handle various media types and as well as screen and file sharing so that students are able to present their own findings to the virtual classroom, and be a part of an engaged learning community.

If you are interested in finding out how this technology could support your teaching and provide opportunities for your students to showcase their learning, contact us at the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL).

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How much Narration in your PowerPoint?

Posted on by Bruce Richards
Recently, the Instructional Designers in the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL) have been working with more faculty who would like to incorporate audio and video within their PowerPoint files so that their students will be able to access the file from PowerPoint as part of the course documents.

The challenge we all face with this process is:

  1. The size of the PowerPoint file after adding audio and video
  2. The optimal length of the PowerPoint
  3. Should audio be added to all slides
  4. The best method for file delivery
  5. Best Practices for Narration

All the points above speak to finding best practices so that consistency will be maintained throughout the development of these types of PowerPoint presentations. Using a software called Adobe Presenter allows us to provide solutions to those challenges.

Adobe Presenter: Click to enlarge

Let me address each in the above numbered list order.

1. Size of PowerPoint file with Audio and Video

Adding audio and video to a PowerPoint file can substantially increase the file size by many megabytes. (1 kilobyte = 1,024bytes or 1MB).

One of the PowerPoint files I worked on started at 264KB, and by the time we added audio we were looking at a file size of 2.5MB. You can imagine the student that has to download the large PowerPoint file will get impatient if they have a slow Internet connection. Thus we have to be mindful of how much audio and video we add to the existing PowerPoint file. Do we really need to add audio to all slides? How about providing a link to that video rather than inserting it into the PowerPoint file?

2. Optimal length of the PowerPoint

A PowerPoint presentation that will incorporate audio and/or video will substantially increase in size as stated above, but also will a PowerPoint file that has 51 slides as against one with 14 slides. Rather than provide a 51 slide PowerPoint, it would be better to break that PowerPoint file into two manageable slides so as to reduce the file size.

3. Adding Audio to all Slides

One line of thought is to only use audio when it is instructionally necessary. The use of images with captions or embedded text can provide sufficient understanding. Moving away from using audio on slides where the text provides the weight of explanation, means reducing redundancy. What about using a well-written script that reduces wordiness or hmms, and ahhhs, makes for a pleasing audio presentation. Finally not every slide needs audio; break it up with the use of images or external links to additional information.

4. Best method for this file delivery

Adding audio and video to a PowerPoint even if we break up the presentation into several files, or reduce audio some slides, still results in a large file size for the students to download and view. To provide a viable solution to address both file size and access, the university has a site license to a software called Adobe Presenter that is part of the collaborative video tool called Adobe Connect that allows for flash presentations to be created from PowerPoint files. As stated on their website, “With just a few clicks in PowerPoint, you can transform drab presentations into engaging Adobe® Flash® multimedia experiences”. By having a site license, the software is freely available to all faculty for install on their office computer. If you are interested in using the software, contact the Instructional Designers at the FCTL and we will provide the information to do so.

As it publishes your PowerPoint file, Adobe Presenter compresses the file and then creates a flash file that can be easily embedded into your Blackboard course for viewing using the Browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc.) to show the presentation. No longer will students need to download a file to view the Presentation. Adobe Presenter comes with a easily controlled user interface that gives the students control over viewing and moving through the presentation at their own pace. All transitions, text, from PowerPoint come over with no loss of functionality.

Adobe Connect:

5. Best Practices for Narration

Use it only if necessary according to the instruction on the slides
Have a script that reduces the chances of error will recording and allow the narration to flow smoothly
Ensure you have a quality microphone (suggestion: Get a Gamers headset with microphone at BestBuy).
If you want to use video, a Logitech Webcam is a good buy for that purpose. Webcams come with a built-in microphone.

Conclusion:

At the end of the day, no student wants the entire PowerPoint presentation to be narrated when other activities could provide more pedagogy.

Reading text word to word as seen on screen, is redundant and does not increase transfer of learning, when learning activities could provide stronger learning.

Being able to provide your PowerPoint presentation in a format that can be viewed using only the Browser is a huge plus for students to get right to the subject matter.

Need more information or support? Contact us at the FCTL.

References:

“Nuts and Bolts: Principles of Multimedia Learning,” Jane Bozarth, Learning Solutions Magazine (online), May 4, 2010.

“How much narration in e-learning? Our Lessons Learned,” Don Bair, Mike Dickinson, Learning Solutions Magazine (online), April 21, 2011.

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Identification of Tools/Technology using for Teaching and Learning

Posted on by Bruce Richards

Over the past week, the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning has been engaged in discussions on the various tools and technology we believe should be useful for faculty as they develop their courses whether for face-to-face, blended, or as a fully online learning modality. The ability to create interactive learning activities is surely an area to encourage students to experience a truely reflective and colloabrative learning no matter the modality.

There is certainly the need to increase or expand the use of Blackboard away from being just a text tool to one that uses technology to enhance the curriculum and ensure strong transfer of learning. The various tools or technology available for that purpose ensures that the students will become actively engaged with the course content so as to incerase content understanding, compreshension, engagement and retention of the course materials. This learning effectiveness will hopefully increase, because of the balanced usage of technology in their learning.

We have itemized what these activites may be that technology can create for greater student engagement. These activities are:

  1. Syllabus Quiz
  2. Chapter Quizzes
  3. Gaming Elements
  4. Learning Modules
  5. Video Exercises
  6. Learning Objects – Tutorials, Animations, Simulations, Interactive Timelines, Instructional Tools
  7. Scenario and Case Studies
  8. Interactive Games
  9. Simulations and Animations
  10. Interactive Tutorials (e.g. Chemistry, Mathematics, Finance, Accounting)
  11. Secure Online Testing
  12. Student Created Multimedia Projects
  13. Global Learning and Collaboration Opportunities

The list of tools (as seen in the below table) is broken down between tools the FCTL/University has versus those tools the FCTL/University needs as we expand the learning activities faculty can create for their courses.

Tools We Have

Tools We Need
Adobe Connect Pro 7.5 Streaming Media Server (Kaltura or ShareStream) *
Adobe Presenter 7.5 Adobe Captivate
Respondus Test maker Adobe eLearning Suite 2
Camtasia Adobe Dreamweaver
MediaSite Adobe Acrobat Professional
Blogs, Wikis, Journals Adobe Flash
Microsoft Photostory 3 Adobe Photoshop
Screenr (webbased recorder (free and paid) Respondus StudyMate *
Blackboard Learn 9.1 Respondus Lock-down Browser *
Windows MovieMaker (free) Lectora Inspire Professional
Audacity (audio editor, open source) Impatica (presentation tool) **
TurnItIn (Plagiarism Checker) SoftChalk (develop learning modules) **
inQsit (Online testing) Articulate Suite
Camstudio (screen capture, open source) Tablets (Wacom)
Microsoft Office (PowerPoint,Excel,Word,Access) Media Semantics Character Builder (Avatar)
Jing (screen capture, free) Web subscriptions to images **
SurveyMonkey (Creates surveys, free and paid) iPads
SMART Notebook/ Recorder (Smartboards) Flip Cameras
Clickers Blackboard Collaborate Module (Wimba Classroom, Illuminate, and Voice  *
Microsoft Photostory 3 (free) Web Cameras and Headsets **
Video Conferencing (Tandberg) Camtasia and Snagit

* – campus wide license
** – department license
All other tools would be single licenses based on individual department needs

Are there tools you know that are useful that you would like to see? Send us an email and let us know what these tools are and how they are used.

In our next posting, we will show examples of interactive activities and the tools that were used to create them.

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