Best Practices for Designing PowerPoints

Recently, I presented a faculty development session on this topic. You can watch the recorded archive of the presentation by following this URL: https://connect.regis.edu/p85835481/


In brief, here are 12 basic characteristics to address when you are creating a PowerPoint presentation:

1. Choosing a theme
   Keep it simple, avoid bright colors, patterns or obnoxious decorations
2. Fonts
   Limit your font variety, make sure it is large enough to read, use sans serif fonts, no not type in ALL CAPS
3. Color
   Use sparingly, make sure your text is legible, don't use color for emphasis
4. Text/ Content
   Keep text per slide to a minimum, explain visuals/graphics, use the notes area to explain your bullets
5. Images/Graphics
   these will help illustrate concepts, use only visuals that support your content, obey copyright laws, use notes to explain visuals
6. Length
   Keep as short as possible, chunk your content, Narrated presentations aim for 8 min or less, non-narrated 15-20 slides max.
7. Interaction
   Break up content with questions for reflection (before or after a slide), include a brief, self check quiz
8. Notes
   Make your PPT available for printing, include Notes when and if you generate a PDF
9. Errors
   check your facts, spell check, get a second pair of eyes to review
10. Animations/ Transitions
    Don't use them
11. Narration
    Increases interest, retention and understanding (if done properly), provide transcripts
12. Video
    use sparingly, obey copyright, Provide transcripts and/or closed captioning

For more information and resources check out my Delicious links on the topic:

http://delicious.com/niksmarks/powerpoint

http://delicious.com/niksmarks/presentations

The Last 25 Years of Distance Eduation

I recently attended the 25th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning in Madison, Wisconsin, August 4-7th, 2009.

http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/
You can access session handouts and keynote videos from the website.

Michael G. Moore, a professor at Pennsylvania State University was the opening keynote for the conference. Since this was the 25th year of this conference the overall theme was looking back on the last 25 years of Distance Education and looking forward to the next.

Moore’s keynote discussed the history of distance education in a nutshell, pointing out the remarkable accomplishments and contributions of Charles Wedemeyer. It is quite incredible, looking back to the mid-sixties on how Wedemeyer was so insightful on the vision of today’s e-learning. Wedemeyer wrote the book, “Learning at the Back Door” in 1954, addressing the challenges of teaching students who may not be “traditional.” I thought it was funny that Moore pointed out that you can purchase a copy of the book for a $1 on Amazon, although, when I investigated the cheapest I found was $12, and that was for the updated 1981 edition. You can, however, purchase an electronic version of the original at http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/1954.htm. I just got my copy from the library to review.

Similar to the opening keynote, I attended an information session led by Rick Shearer, also from Pennsylvania State University. Rick discusses just how far we have come in the last 25 years. It is actually a little bit comical to look at these giant contraptions that were used in Distance Ed in the early years. I don’t know if any of you ever heard of PLATO, probably one of the first learning management systems, created at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. The only reason why I know about is a friend of mine was taking classes at U of I in the early nineties and we bought our first modem so he could connect to it. The whole thing was rather mind blowing at first to me. I remember contemplating the point and usefulness of “email”. Later down the road, when I was just starting my master’s degree, my program actually felt the need to teach us “Hyper-card.” Although, this was popular in its time it was certainly getting chased away by newer, fancier technology like Flash. One of the courses that I took (for my master’s degree) was part of a video teleconference so other campuses could tap into the live class. As I reflect over just the past 10 years it is quite incredible to see how far we’ve come and how fast technology changed. I’m fairly young but I could actually say “I remember when email came onto the scene, heck, I remember a time before cell phones, and we had rotary dials on the land phone!”

Rick, the presenter, reminded me of other early learning management systems, such as Prometheus, Web course in a Box, and a young Blackboard etc. I think about where we are now. We have lots of choices for LMS. Moodle is ever so popular along with other open source systems. Many people ask “why would they make it free and open to anyone?” Well, it is just like the question back in the day where you might have said “why would I email someone when I can just pick up the phone?” Of course, now we have a tidal wave of Web 2.0 tools and we are well on the way to the concept of Web 3.0. It is all about making life easier and getting things faster and better; and that includes learning too. The future of distance education will bring learning to everyone’s fingertips. But my big question is when will education be completely free?

Rick ends his presentation with these areas to consider for the future of DE.
• Access
• Scale/economies
• Individualization and mobile
• Student generated content
• Cost
• Knowledge building- dialogue

Plagiarism in your discussion threads?

Could your students be plagiarizing in the discussion threads? An article review.

Olt, Melissa R. (2009) "Seven Strategies for Plagiarism-proofing discussion threads in Online Courses,” MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. 5(2), 222-229.

Just this past June, MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching featured a great article on the topic of plagiarism and discussion activities. I applaud Ms. Olt for sharing this important topic and possibly causing a few instructors to pause and reflect upon this issue.
I always say that discussion activities are the meat and potatoes of an online course. Probably 95% of all our fully online courses feature discussion interactions in order to engage students in the course content.

Olt suggests these seven strategies for Plagiarism-proofing discussion threads:

1. Ensure that discussion questions encourage higher-order thinking skills.
We want to see questions that will really get your students’ wheels turning. I like to say give them a question they can really sink their teeth into, as opposed to summarizing or regurgitating content from the textbooks. Try a question that involves brainstorming and generating new ideas. Encourage students to follow up with Socratic questioning.

2. Relate discussion questions to the course as a whole.
Tie the questions to things that will help them prepare for another course assignment, for example a paper. In other words, ask students to think about their paper topic and their main ideas and how it relates to that week’s concept/topic. “Assignments that are unique, meaningful and have value beyond its mere completion are effective deterrents of plagiarism (McLafferty & Foust, 2004; Willen, 2004).

3. Rotate the curriculum.
I suggest rotating the discussion prompts every term you teach. Create a bank of discussion questions for each week to choose from. Little do you know, students may be recycling or sharing discussion responses.

4. Encourage interactivity
We want students to go beyond their original response posting and actually interact with their peers. Encourage your students to use Socratic questioning and also to response to the students who may ask them questions about their original posting. By gauging how a student actually is able to discussion a concept and react to questions about their own postings may give instructors a glimpse of their understanding of a concept. If their original content was plagiarized and they really don’t have a clue as to how to respond to a question about their post this may be a dead give-away.

5. Ensure that instructors take an active role in online discussions.
As I have mentioned this already two or three times, I feel that the role of Socratic questioning is an effective method of engaging students with critical thinking. Instructors can jump in and prompt students as needed. Sometimes students find it challenging, especially in the first few weeks, to loosen up and get the ball rolling with good interactivity, so the instructor can set the pace and a good example of how to do it. Obviously, there is a delicate balance of instructor involvement in the discussions and you want to be careful. Too much involvement may stifle student expression, and too little involvement may leave students wondering if they are on track and being noticed. It is ok to at least let your students know that you are reading their posts and you may not jump in unless you feel it is needed (for example if they are getting off track/topic or the discussion is in need of some stimulation).

6. Ensure the workload is manageable.
Probably in the top 5 reasons why students feel the need to cheat is when they experience an incredible amount of workload especially when balancing with a full time job. Review your course and think about the workload. Typically one discussion activity per week is ideal. I think that any more than that you will be getting into information overload. Read your end of course evaluations carefully. If you see several comments about the stress and difficulty managing the workload this may be a red flag. I have even seen some students specifically point out that they desire to dive into a one course concept deeply but they were not able to because the expectation was to address too many concepts quickly in one week, where they were unable to process the information in their head.

7. Assess discussions and provide feedback.
When an instructor confirms to the student that they are on the right track with their thinking this will add to the students’ overall learning experience and will contribute to successful achievement of outcomes. Providing timely feedback may identify student misconceptions of a concept early enough where they can work it out before moving on to the next week or course unit.

These strategies are excellent best practices to guide your discussions whether you suspect plagiarism or not. Anything we can do to prevent plagiarism from occurring and to encourage a satisfying learning experience is ideal.


McLafferty, C.L., & Foust, K. M. (2004) Electronic Plagiarism as a college instructor’s nightmare—prevention and detection {Electronic version}. Journal of Education for Business, 80(3), 186-189.

Keeping Accessibility in Mind

Accessibility, with regards to distance education, is an important topic that we can NOT afford to ignore. Oftentimes, it feels like the 2-ton, pink elephant in our virtual room and it may be difficult to address. First off, I think we all would agree that it is important to us as educators that we want to know that our content is reaching EVERY student, right?
So let us follow through with the idea of reaching EVERY student and break it down into some things to think about. Oh, and keep in mind that it is a law that we must comply with and make our content accessible. (http://www.section508.gov)


As you know, all of our online courses provides the standard Disability Statement and suggests that if a student has a documented disability, they must contact our Disability Services office in a timely manner in order to be accommodated. If that is the case, would you be ready? Would you suddenly be in a scramble and have to make adjustments in your course so that student would have an equal experience in the course and be able to successfully meet the learning objectives?


I’d like to introduce to you the concept of Universal Design. Maybe you have heard of it? Basically, what universal design suggests is to design your course from the moment of conception to be accessible to EVERY student, not just students with disabilities. The purpose of UD is to “reduce barriers to the curriculum while maintaining high achievement standards for all.” (http://www.cast.org) The good news is that research shows that when we design our online content with accessibility in mind, there is a bonus affect where the other students will benefit from the design as well. The design will provide options for students with different learning preferences and styles.



Please keep in mind that some of your learners…

• may have low vision and they use a screen reader to assist them.
• may be hard of hearing and depend on closed-captioning or transcripts to understand audio content.
• may not have the ability to use a keyboard or mouse.
• may have a text-only screen, a small screen, or a slow Internet connection.
• may not speak or understand fluently the language in which the document is written.
• may have cognitive impairments such as dyslexia or attention deficit.
• may have learning style preferences.

So what can YOU do right now to ensure that your course is accessible? Here are some guidelines:

General Accessibility Guidelines

1. Provide equivalent alternatives to ALL auditory and visual content.
   a. Provide transcripts for audio
   b. Closed-captioning for video
   c. Use ALT tags for images
2. Do NOT rely on color alone to emphasize text.
   a. use headers, BOLD or italic instead
3. Use style sheets and/or simple HTML headers to control layout and presentation for maximum readability but also for use with screen readers.
4. Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's content. Content should be understandable and navigable. Providing navigation tools and orientation information in pages will also maximize accessibility and usability.
5. If you use tables, create them so they will translate gracefully with a screen reader by identifying the rows and column headers.
6. For any multimedia presentation (e.g., a movie or animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives (e.g., captions) with the presentation.
7. Ensure that foreground and background color combination provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having color deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen.
8. Use header elements to convey document structure and use them according to specification.
9. Divide large blocks of information into more manageable groups where natural and appropriate.
10. Clearly identify the target of each link. In other words, don’t provide a link that says Click Here.
11. Instead present it like this: Go to http://www.google.com
12. Avoid any flickering, blinking or flashing content.
13. Be willing to arrange special access to online quizzes or exams.
14. Choose your images and graphics wisely; Make sure they are instructionaly supportive rather than just for decoration. Always use ALT tags.

Resources and articles for more information:

• World Wide Web Consortium: http://www.w3.org
• The law: http://www.section508.gov
• The Accessibility in Distance Education (ADE), University of Maryland University College: http://www.umuc.edu/ade/wia/benefits.html
• A free online textbook “Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age” http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/ Universal Design for Learning: www.cast.org
• Santovec, M. (2005, March). A New Way to Evaluate Accessibility. Distance Education Report, 9(5), 1-7. Retrieved June 29, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism-What can we do to prevent it?

1. EDUCATE yourself AND your students about plagiarism. www.plagiarism.org offers definitions, tutorials and resources.
   
   
2. Recognize it; acknowledge that it may happen in your course; and get tough! Your attitude as an instructor may make a big difference.
   
   
3. Take a look at your course and consider making some adjustments. Think about the reasons why a student might plagiarize in your course. Take this online quiz to determine the ‘cheatability’ of your course. http://learningfield.org/cheat/
   
   
4. If you have a midterm and final exam, try to rotate quiz/exam questions each term; Rotate paper topics; Change case studies each year or term as well; You may even consider changing discussion questions slightly, from term to term.

Plagiarism.org suggests these guidelines for educators in preventing Plagiarism:
http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/preventing_guidlines.html

1. Explain to your students what plagiarism means
2. Explain what is wrong about plagiarism
3. Make consequences clear
4. Start your course with clear expectations
5. Assign specific questions or topics; the more particular the questions or topics the less likely the students will find papers already written on them.
6. Require students to submit thesis statements, introductions, outlines, drafts and resources {during the process of the assignment}
7. Have students annotate their bibliography; but let them know that it should be in their own words and NOT the abstract they may find with the source.
8. Ask your students to describe the process of researching and developing their ideas.
9. Require recent and/or specific sources;

One issue with plagiarism is that it is often 'accidental,' because students just don't know how to paraphrase or cite properly. I highly recommend that you share this website http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/paraphrase.html where students can practice and learn about how to paraphrase.
Another great resource to share with your students is the OWL (online writing lab) at Purdue University. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/ Again, there are excellent resources for your student with regarding to writing well and avoiding plagiarism.
Some instructors here at Regis who teach online are using Turn it in software. Turn it in is an originality detection software.

On May 28th, I will be hosting a round table discussion on methods and strategies for preventing or reducing plagiarism. Email me for more information or if you have questions.

Nicole

When it's too big for email.

Here is a technical challenge for you. You have a 25 MB file to send to coworker at the Colorado Springs campus. The information needs to be there yesterday, (isn’t that always the case) and Outlook rejects the email message because it is too large. I had a somewhat similar situation recently when I thought Larisa Hoffman, the professor I was helping, was in an exotic location like Nova Scotia. She was trying to send me an Articulate Presenter file and Outlook rejected it. At Regis attachments to Microsoft Outlook email is limited to 10 MB, generous, but not always sufficient. Audio and video files, especially those created with presentation software like PowerPoint, Adobe Presenter or Captivate, or Articulate Presenter, get large quickly.

Assuming you know several ways to work around Outlook’s limitations that involve dividing and zipping the content into individual folders for emailing, you may also have found that these methods do not always work successfully. It did not work when we reassembled the file, it would not play. A good reliable method for transferring content up to 100 MB electronically is found using Adobe Connect, the online meeting software used at Regis. Within Connect is a function called “File Share” which allows you to upload images, PowerPoint documents, PDF documents, Adobe Flash documents, and Zipped files that contains html, audio, and video. In fact I tried to find content that Connect wouldn’t upload and I could not find one.

Prior to doing any of the steps for using File Share in Connect, you need to activate your Connect account and have a room made for you. Contact the CAT Lab at academic.regis.edu/connect and select Apply for a Connect Account. Once you have a room and have opened it you need to open a File Share pod from the Pods Menu found along the top of the window. The File Share pod allows you to download files from your computer using commands found by clicking the Sprocket icon in the lower left corner of the pod. To upload a file, attendees need only click the Save to My Computer button, than confirm they want to Save to My Desktop. The file, folder, or image is placed on the desktop ready for use. To clean up the Share File when you are done, just click objects to highlight them, then click the sprocket a second time and select Remove this Content.

You can reverse this process with the other person brining you into their meeting room, or you can give them Presenter rights in your meeting room to retrieve documents from them. To learn about how to get people into your meeting room, up grading their permissions so they can share, or other tasks necessary with Connect, visit the RHCHP Distance Education resource site at http://rhchp.regis.edu/DE/tutorials/faculty/index.html. Select the Connect Tutorials button alone the top, and select tutorials from the menu on the left side.

You might be thinking that sounds long and complicated, but even a new user of Connect can zip a 100 MB folder, open a meeting room and File Share pod, upload the file and send the email in under 10 minutes. In fact remember Larisa Hoffman? Turns out her office was just across campus, but using Connect it took less time than it took to walk across campus to 4nd Floor Carroll, download the file and return to my office. And you didn't need to worry about running into someone on the way who might assign me more work.

Nurturing the Soul in Adult Learning

I recently stumbled upon an amazing article published in New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. (no. 74, Summer 1997) The article is titled "Nurturing Soul in Adult Learning." In a nutshell, the article focuses on transformative learning that addresses the 'whole' person, and understanding that emotion and 'soul' will play a part in adult learning. In our courses for the health professions, I have observed that self reflection activities are present, which is a good step in nurturing the soul. It is important that the instructor acts as a mentor to the student and assists the student in their journey to make connections with their past experiences and new concepts or practices. I believe there is an "art" to refection. Our busy and sometimes overwhelmed students may not really 'practice' reflection outside of the course. We need to teach and encourage this life-long learning skill. Recently, in the health care ethics course (HCE430), we took this skill to heart and created a little weekly activity to practice the art of reflection. The following is a case study of how we used media to create reflective spaces.

“Using media to provide a reflective space in an ethics course”
An Instructional Design Case Study

The problem/issue and context The health care ethics course (which is an online, 8-week, accelerated course) can be an emotionally challenging course. It addresses personal views, theories, morals and ethical decision-making. One goal of studying ethics is to foster the ability to be more reflective. Unfortunately, the modern world doesn't offer much space for reflection, and we often get so caught up in daily life that reflection seems like a luxury we cannot afford. So we want to provide students with a space to reflect on the course materials and related issues. We have included a different reflective space for each week.

The tool/technology used We used Adobe Presenter, which is a plug-in that works with Microsoft PowerPoint. The end result is a single .html file (that runs by Flash Player) that includes relaxing music, a peaceful image, and a thought provoking quote that relates to the weekly topic. This tool is a good fit because it includes a player (with stop, pause, play buttons), and there are no distractions (like branding or advertisements). It is quick and easy to create.

Instructional design Our goal here is to provide an effective and engaging space for students to practice the art of the reflection. I believe this activity taps into a couple ID theories and approaches such as: The humanist approach: We are encouraging the development of the whole person (emotional and affective domain). This activity addresses the student’s busy world and the fact that this is an intense and highly reflective course. It provides students with a space to take a moment to relax and reflect. Behaviorism: The design of this activity supports and encourages positive changes in the student’s behavior. The positive change= taking the time to reflect and perform moral reasoning which in turn will result in making good choices when facing difficult, ethical decisions. Cognitivisim: This theory encourages students to reflect on their faulty thinking and then rectify it. That is, reflection provides the space to identify beliefs, positions, and ideologies. This self-awareness can be transformative.

To the right is a screenshot of one of the reflective spaces.





If you have any questions or comments about the article or my case study please drop me an email. nmarcisz@regis.edu

Group Collaboration

Tips for making group collaboration a pleasant and engaging experience

Group collaboration in an online course can often times turn out to be an unpleasant experience for students. It can be challenging to communicate and collaborate across the states or even across the globe in some cases only using email. Let's turn this around and make it a better experience! There are a variety of Web 2.0 solutions that will make it easy for students to collaborate on group projects.
Let's explore the suite of tools that Zoho offers at http://zoho.com There are many advantages of using these free tools. First, for tools like Zoho Wiki, Docs, Sheets, or Show, they are all web-based. This eliminates the need to email back and forth multiple versions of files to each other and wondering which one is the most current. With Zoho, there will be one file that multiple people can share at the site. If person A makes a change to the file, person B will see that immediately. One of the nice things about using Zoho Show (which is similar to PowerPoint) you can publish it right to the site and Zoho will host it for free. Then you can send the URL to whomever you want to share it with. Zoho has a chat tool available as well, in the event that students would like to talk synchronously.

In addition to using Zoho for a group project, I also would like to recommend a non-Web 2.0 solution to support the group collaboration. In ANGEL, set up a private team discussion forum for each of the teams. This will be a good method for students to communicate and plan the project. At the start of the group project advise the groups to choose a group leader who will set up the initial shared file (document, show, spreadsheet etc.). Students are going to have to register at Zoho in order to use the tools. I recommend that students use there Regis email address.

Here are some resources to help you better understand some of these types of tools:

• Short video: “Google Docs in Plain English” (presented by the CommonCraft Show)

• Short video: “Wiki’s in Plain English” (presented by the CommonCraft Show)

• 7 Things you should know about Wiki’s (Educause)

• Nicole's collection of websites on the topic of "collaboration"

Please respond with any questions or comments.

Nicole Marcisz