Active Learning with PowerPoint

Kenrick Mock

Dept. of Mathematical Sciences

Elluminate

• If you want to participate in the exercise at the end of this presentation, you can log in to elive:– http://elive.uaa.alaska.edu– click on the “Mock” meeting– Use any name, no password

• This will make the presentation go a little faster so I don’t have to wait for your browsers to load

Powerpoint, Powerpoint, Everywhere

• Common and convenient for instructors

• But a common target for student complaints– Instructor goes too fast– Slides too packed with information– Instructor just reads slides / boring– Too passive for students

PowerPoint – Reviled?

• "I generally believe that PowerPoint is the spawn of Satan. It breeds passivity in the students and it disconnects the speaker from the audience." – John D. Arras, Professor of Biomedical Ethics and

Philosophy at the University of Virginia

• "His knowledge on that topic is only PowerPoint deep." – MAJ (JS)

• "It's like a plastic banana…looks good but provides no nutritional value or sustenance." – O-5, National Capital Region

PowerPoint is Evil?

• PowerPoint Is Evil (Power Corrupts, PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely). By Edward Tufte. Wired Magazine, Issue 11.09, September 2003

• PowerPoint Makes You Dumb By Clive Thompson. The New York Times Magazine, December 2003.

• PowerPointitis: Glitz Over Content By Giancarlo Livraghi. Visionarymarketing.com Article.

PowerPoint Is Just a Tool

• However, many would agree that PowerPoint is just a tool that can be used wisely or poorly

• One strategy is to utilize features to support active learning in the classroom to avoid student passivity

– First alternative to the linear presentation: the hyper-linked presentation

– PowerPoint allows any object to link to another slide in the presentation

PowerPoint Hyperlinking• Create an object that will be the “button”

• Right-click it and choose “Hyperlink”

• Select “Place in this Document” and the slide

Click Me

PowerPoint Inquiry-Based Learning

• One application of hyperlinks is to create a “Home” page on a central topic– Home page has links to sub-topics– After finished with sub-topic can return to home topic

• The students and instructor can pick and choose which topics to cover and in what depth

• Encourages active learning since the students can choose the course of the lecture– Instructor still has ready-made material for direction

students choose to go

Hyperlinked Example – Donald Norman’s Design Principles

What factors or principles should we use in evaluating thedesign of an object or system?

Visibility

Affordances

Mapping

Constraints

Feedback

Next…

Visibility

• The correct parts must be visible and they must convey the correct message

• Natural signals are naturally interpreted• Visibility problems occur when clues are lacking

or exist in excess• Just by looking the user should know

– State of the system– Possible actions

• Don’t violate these principles to make something “look good”!

The Men’s Room

Software Visibility Example: Hidden Functions

• Design might allow users to drag/drop between scrolling lists, use control key to delete

Better: Hidden Functions

• Hidden functions OK as long as it’s not the only way

Constraints

• Constraints limit the ways in which something can be used

• Constraints can be– Physical– Semantic– Cultural– Logical

On which side does the door open?

GUI Constraints

Affordances

• The affordances of an object determine, naturally, how it can be used– Button affords pushing or clicking– Handle affords grasping– Chair affords sitting– Textbox affords clicking / editing

• Just by looking at the object, a user should know how to use it

Poor Affordances

• Trapped between doors!

• Handles afford pulling

• Using a flat plate would constrain the user to push

Software Visual Affordance Problem

• needs familiar idiom and metaphor to work

sliders for sliding

are these buttons?

what does this button do?

dials for turning

Feedback

• Feedback is sending back to the user information about what action has actually been done

• Visibility of the effects of the operation tell you if something worked correctly

• Systems should be designed to provide adequate feedback to the users to ensure they know what to do next in their tasks

VCR Feedback

• Did I really set it correctly to record at 8PM on Tuesday?

Software Feedback

• What mode and I in, edit mode or command mode?

Mapping

• Controls and displays should exploit natural mapping

• Natural mapping takes advantage of physical analogies and cultural standards– Physical: Steering wheel– Cultural: red means stop, green means go

Mouse or Keyboard?

What Knob Goes Where?

Exploiting Natural Mapping

Hyperlinking – Games

• Games are good way for both you and the students to assess their learning– More engaged, more participation than just asking

questions– One way to use “extra” time for handwritten lecture

converted to PowerPoint• Copy popular TV game show

– Jeopardy!– Who Wants To Be A Millionaire– Etc.

• Variations possible, e.g. groups• Use hyperlinks and multimedia for the game

Layout

$200

$400

$600

$800

Potpourri

$200

$400

$600

$800

Scores

Example – Quiz Game for Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Next…

Layout - $200

True or False:It is a good idea to vary the font face and background images to keep our

viewers interested.

Back

Layout - $400

True or False:To make sure readers can understand your message be sure to add enough text that explains in detail what your program/code/algorithm/etc. is doing

Back

Layout - $600

What is the maximum number of lines of text you should put on a single

slide?

Back

Layout - $800

Name at least TWO things that are bad about the following graph.

Back

Potpourri - $200

True or False:You should write down the words of

your talk and read it so you can deliver a smooth presentation.

Back

Potpourri - $400

True or False:

Audience attention is usually high at the beginning of a talk and decreases toward

the end of the talk

Back

Potpourri - $600

We said that the typical structure for a written article is not good for a presentation.

Why?

Back

Potpourri - $800

Name at least THREE things that could be improved on the following slide:

Back

Moose Tracker 3000

The moose tracker 3000 project is designed to track moose in their natural environment. Using the ISO 9000 protocol we measure the carrying capacity implemented by the Hanley TGR-49R/Z method. Moose were selected in the HUD3 range and monitored by GPS collar for 120 days. Samples collected by the NDF technique indicate that the herbivores can metabolize class 3 plants more efficiently than previously thought.

1:1 Collaborative Environments

• If the class is taught in an environment where every student has a computer (e.g. lab / distance / both) then software can help promote active learning– Have every students do an exercise or activity in

class using the computer• Or use small groups in some cases

– Student can’t just sit back and be passive, has to participate

– Student better assesses what he or she knows and doesn’t know

– Feedback to instructor

1:1 Classroom Computing

• Software for student submission of exercises mostly converts PowerPoint into a format amenable to networked interaction– Classroom Presenter– Ubiquitous Presenter– InkSurvey Tool– DyKnow– Elluminate

Student Submissions with Elluminate

• Student submissions can be done using Breakout Rooms– One room per student or per group

• Set up rooms in advance with exercise to be completed– Requires converting and uploading PowerPoint– Instructor can view progress in the rooms, copy

screens and paste them in the main area to share

• Example: http://elive.uaa.alaska.edu– Click on the “Mock” meeting

Exercise – Student SubmissionsThe following is the user interface for an application designed by John Q. Hacker. It allows a customer of an insurance agency to submit a claim form for damage to their automobile

The customer can fill out the textboxes then click on the image of the automobile to enter a description of the damage. For example, if the door is dented, the customer can click on the door. A dialog box will appear that allows the user to enter a description of damage to the door. When the user is done the dialog box is closed. The user can click on the door again to view or edit what was previously entered.

Critique this interface in terms of the fundamental design principles discussed in class, and suggest an alternate interface.

Conclusion

• PowerPoint is not evil• Hyperlinks can be used to support inquiry-based

learning and active learning– Central page with links to sub-topics– Games

• A number of software packages exist to support active learning and student submissions in a 1:1 computer classroom environment– Can be done with Elluminate with a little effort

References

• Bad Human Factors Design– http://www.baddesigns.com/

• Classroom Presenter– http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/dl/presenter/

• Ubiquitous Presenter– http://up.ucsd.edu/about/

• Elluminate Live– http://www.elluminate.com/

• UM Active Learning w/Powerpoint– http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/

powerpoint/