An audience response system may influence student performance on anatomy examination questions

This study integrated an in-house audience response system (ARS) in the human anatomy course over two years to determine whether students performed better on high-stakes examinations following exposure to similar interactive questions in a large lecture format. Questions in an interactive ARS format were presented in lectures via PowerPoint presentations. Students who chose to participate in the anonymous ARS sessions submitted answers via their personal wireless devices (e.g., laptops, smartphones, PDAs, etc). Students were surveyed for feedback. Student participation in ARS activities was greatest (65-80%) in the first lecture. The number of students who actively participated in ARS activities decreased over the next four sessions, and then slightly increased in the last two sessions. This trend was the same for both years. Use of the ARS did not dramatically enhance overall student performance on examination questions that dealt with content similar to content presented in the ARS sessions. However, students who scored in the lower quartile of the examination performed better on the examination questions after the ARS was implemented. Accordingly, our findings suggest that the effect of ARS to improve student performance on examinations was not uniform. The overall benefit of an ARS to enhance the lecture experience was confirmed by student surveys.     

Applying the many‐facet Rasch model to evaluate PowerPoint presentation performance in higher education

This study investigated the usefulness of the many‐facet Rasch model (MFRM) in evaluating the quality of performance related to PowerPoint presentations in higher education. The Rasch Model utilizes item response theory stating that the probability of a correct response to a test item/task depends largely on a single parameter, the ability of the person. MFRM extends this one‐parameter model to other facets of task difficulty, for example, rater severity, rating scale format, task difficulty levels. This paper specifically investigated presentation ability in terms of items/task difficulty and rater severity/leniency. First‐year science education students prepared and used the PowerPoint presentation software program during the autumn semester of the 2005–2006 school year in the ‘Introduction to the Teaching Profession’ course. The students were divided into six sub‐groups and each sub‐group was given an instructional topic, based on the content and objectives of the course, to prepare a PowerPoint presentation. Seven judges, including the course instructor, evaluated each group’s PowerPoint presentation performance using ‘A+ PowerPoint Rubric’. The results of this study show that the MFRM technique is a powerful tool for handling polytomous data in performance and peer assessment in higher education.     

Providing online course opportunities for learners who are deaf, hard of hearing, or hearing

For more than 20 years, two courses, History, Education, and Guidance of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Introduction to Instructional Methods for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, have been taught at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania using a traditional lecture format. A state grant provided funding to explore the use of technology to teach online courses to college-age learners who are deaf, hard of hearing, or hearing. Saba Centra software was used as the online tool for the synchronous presentation of course content, which included PowerPoint lecture material, text chat opportunities, sign language-interpreted video, and other forms of class participation (e.g., signaling for questions raised, responding in a "yes/no" format). The present article covers recent successes and challenges in offering online courses in a "virtual classroom" format to deaf and hard of hearing learners, as well as hearing learners, from a qualitative research perspective.     

An intervention to improve school and student performance

Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI) used ISPI's 10 Standards of Performance Technology to share the design, development, and implementation of an intervention striving to help Georgia districts and schools share their success stories in a clear and concise format. This intervention took the form of a PowerPoint presentation, GLISI Promising Practices, and has become a successful tool for districts to share and communicate their success.     

Teacher feedback to student oral presentations in EFL classrooms: a case study

Whilst much research has been conducted on teacher feedback in various teaching and learning contexts, little is known about how teachers give feedback on student oral presentations to enhance students’ oral communicative skills in second-language (L2) education. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, this case study investigated the methods used by an experienced Chinese teacher of English as a Foreign Language to provide feedback on student oral presentation tasks. Data analysis revealed that the teacher gave oral comments mainly on pronunciation, content and logical thinking, and focused on PowerPoint design in his written commentary. The analysis also revealed that the teacher used the specific pattern of ‘praise-criticism-suggestion’ to comment on the students’ oral presentations. Relevant pedagogical implications for L2 teacher feedback practices and teacher-education programmes are discussed in the paper.     

Effect of on-screen text on multimedia learning with native and foreign-accented narration

This study examined the impact of redundant on-screen text on learning from an animated PowerPoint presentation, narrated either by a native or a foreign-accented narrator, with no text, summary text, or full text. Participants completed retention and transfer tests and rated the cognitive load induced by the narration and the PowerPoint materials. With a native narrator, participants performed better on transfer with no text than summary text (redundancy effect). The foreign-accented narration was perceived to be more difficult to understand. Transfer performance was worse for accented than native narration with no text, replicating a voice effect. With a foreign-accented narrator, participants performed better on retention with full text than summary text. Full text facilitated decoding of the accented narration at the word level, but it did not facilitate deep processing for knowledge transfer. The results are discussed in the context of cognitive load and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning.     

Multimedia,It's How You Use It

SUMMARY

The current study chronicles what one professor learned from teaching a distance education course with and without the aid of PowerPoint multimedia presentation software. It compares student ratings of three lectures from the same classes by the same professor; the first, a traditional lecture without any audiovisual aids; the second, a lecture supplemented by PowerPoint notes outlining the lecture; and finally, a multimedia lecture utilizing PowerPoint notes with pictures, music and animations. Students reacted no differently to any of the presentations when delivered by an experienced teacher. The students did, however, prefer PowerPoint multimedia to PowerPoint outline presentations. Suggestions for the optimal uses of presentation software are provided.     

Strategies to Motivate Students for Program Assessment

Accountability in higher education has increased, with more institutions requiring standardized tests. These tests are high stakes for institutions, but low-stakes test for students, who seldom experience consequences for their performance. This study describes how one psychology department improved students' scores on the Psychology Area Concentration Achievement Test. Results were compared between three motivation conditions: no incentive, a monetary incentive, and a motivational Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. The presentation gave students information about the assessment, encouraged them to do well, and informed them that faculty would discuss scores while evaluating the psychology program. Results showed that test scores were significantly higher and correlated significantly with grade point average for students exposed to the motivational presentation. The motivational PowerPoint presentation seemed to have reduced the number of underachieving students and provided more accurate assessment data, with minimal investment in time and effort on the part of faculty.     

Computerized Presentation of Text: Effects on Children’s Reading of Informational Material

This study examined whether children’s reading rate, comprehension, and recall are affected by computer presentation of text. Participants were 60 grade five students, who each read two expository texts, one in a traditional print format and the other from a computer monitor, which used a common scrolling text interface. After reading each text, participants were asked to recall as much as they could from what they had read and then answered questions that measured text recall and comprehension. Children took more time to read the passage and recalled more of the text material that they had read from the computer monitor. The benefit of computer presentation disappeared when efficiency variables, which take time into account, were examined. Children were, however, more efficient at comprehending text when reading from paper. The results suggest that children may take more time to read text on computer screens and that they are more efficient when reading text on paper.     

The effect of the personalization principle on multimedia learning: the role of student individual interests as a predictor

By focusing on the personalization principle, the present study investigates whether two different language presentation formats of a multimedia presentation influence students’ learning outcome and how individual interest towards the learning material moderates this impact. German students (N?=?104) were randomly assigned to either a conversational or a formal language format of the multimedia presentation that taught Gestalt Laws. The results of this study showed that there were more positive effects on the learning performance in the conversational presentation format than the formal language format. This was, therefore, an indication of the effects of personalization. Furthermore, individual interest is a significant predictor for learning in this study. By testing different percentiles of individual interest, the findings showed that students with intermediate interest were affected by the format of language style. In contrast, learning results of students with the very lowest and very highest individual interest were not affected by different language styles. These results underline the necessity to take into account individual motivational prerequisites when designing multimedia learning environments.     

Feeding forward from summative assessment: the Essay Feedback Checklist as a learning tool

Owing to the increasing diversity of assessments in higher education, feedback should be provided to students in a format that can assist future and alternative work. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the Essay Feedback Checklist on future alternative assessments. Participants were assigned to one of two groups, one of which completed the checklist prior to assessment 1 (essay) and received feedback using this method. Attainment on assessment 1 and assessment 2 (examination) were taken as pre- and post-test scores. Results revealed increased assessment scores for the checklist group, compared to those who received conventional feedback. Focus group data indicated that students particularly liked elements of the checklist as a feedback method, but potential drawbacks were also highlighted. Implications and future use of the checklist is then discussed.     

How to Make Educational Lemonade Out of a Didactic Lemon: The Benefits of Listening to Your Students

When educators develop and introduce new learning approaches or resources, they usually have specific didactic goals in mind that they want to achieve. However, these goals may not always match the needs of their students, who often confound such plans by finding new and different uses for the educational tools that are offered to them. Originating from the author’s work as the histology component director at the University of Michigan, the experience described here provides an example of a learning resource being reappropriated by the learning community. In order to encourage dental students to study histological micrographs after faculty-guided laboratory sessions were eliminated, the author prepared and offered them a series of PowerPoint files with histology images and some corresponding questions. However, instead of increasing their motivation to use the online virtual microscopy resources, students adapted this new tool for reviewing the material and for self-evaluation whether they were prepared for upcoming examinations. Although the product did not succeed as originally devised, it turned into a very popular review resource for the author’s students. Students’ feedback and critical input, as well as their active participation in producing additional, similar learning tools were the deciding factors for this successful change of purpose and the further development and refinement of this new learning resource.     

Using PowerPoint as a lens to focus on linearity in teaching

As university lecturers select and sequence materials for their teaching, a linear structure emerges by default. Such a structure is made explicit within PowerPoint presentations and may even be amplified as PowerPoint invites the lecturer to reduce content to a bulleted format. Such linear sequences have been related to passive, surface approaches to learning. The application of concept‐mapping techniques can support the lecturer in making explicit the underlying expert structure of the information being presented to help the student to make the necessary transformations of knowledge structures that are required for meaningful learning. The authors suggest that PowerPoint provides a concrete arena in which lecturers can reflect upon the structure of knowledge that is being constructed within their classrooms.     

Demystifying the publication process – a structured writing program to facilitate dissemination of teaching and learning scholarship

This paper reports on a writing program to support academic staff to publish in peer-refereed journals. Nine participants completed a 12-week program, which involved regular meetings, set writing tasks, and peer feedback on drafts. A pre- and post-survey and follow-up interviews were used to gather feedback. Participants especially valued the discipline of weekly sessions and peer feedback. They reported increased skills and confidence in their writing, greater knowledge of the publication process, and intention to continue writing. Although five papers were published, a 12-month follow-up revealed that original writing intentions were not sustained. Thus, while a structured writing program can be effective, the pressures academic staff experience trying to meet conflicting requirements of teaching, administration, and research, must also be addressed.     

How Do Academic Disciplines Use PowerPoint?

How do academic disciplines use PowerPoint? This project analyzed PowerPoint files created by an academic publisher to supplement textbooks. An automated analysis of 30,263 files revealed clear differences by disciplines. Single-paradigm “hard” disciplines used less complex writing but had more words than multi-paradigm “soft” disciplines. The “hard” disciplines also used a greater number of small graphics and fewer large ones. Disciplines identified by students as being more effective users of PowerPoint used larger images and more complex sentences than disciplines identified as being less effective in this regard. This investigation suggests that PowerPoint best practices are not universal and that we need to account for disciplinary differences when creating presentation guidelines.     

The role of feedback and differences between good and poor decoders in a repeated word reading paradigm in first grade

The direct, retention, and transfer effects of repeated word and pseudoword reading were studied in a pretest, training, posttest, retention design. First graders (48 good readers, 47 poor readers) read 25 CVC words and 25 CVC pseudowords in ten repeated word reading sessions, preceded and followed by a transfer task with a different set of items. Two weeks after training, trained items were assessed again in a retention test. Participants either received phonics feedback, in which each word was spelled out and repeated; word feedback, in which each word was repeated; or no feedback. During the training, both good and poor readers improved in accuracy and speed. The increase in speed was stronger for poor readers than for good readers. The good readers demonstrated a stronger increase for pseudowords than for words. This increase in speed was most prominent in the first four sessions. Two weeks after training, the levels of accuracy and speed were retained. Furthermore, transfer effects on speed were found for pseudowords in both groups of readers. Good readers performed most accurately during the training when they received no feedback while poor readers performed most accurately during the training with the help of phonics feedback. However, feedback did not differentiate for reading speed or for effects after the training. The effects of repeated word reading were found to be stronger for poor readers than for good readers. Moreover, these effects were found to be stronger for pseudowords than for words. This indicates that repeated word reading can be seen as an important trigger for the improvement of decoding skills.     

The influence of student gender on the assessment of undergraduate student work

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of perceived student gender on the feedback given to undergraduate student work. Participants (n = 12) were lecturers in higher education and were required to mark two undergraduate student essays. The first student essay that all participants marked was the control essay. Participants were informed that the control essay was written by Samuel Jones (a male student). Participants then marked the target essay. Although participants marked the same essay, half of the participants (n = 6) were informed that the student essay was written by Natasha Brown (a female student), while the remaining participants were informed that it was written by James Smith (a male student). In-text and end-of-text feedback were qualitatively analysed on six dimensions: academic style of writing; criticality; structure, fluency and cohesion; sources used; understanding/knowledge of the subject; and other. Analysis of feedback for both the control and target essay revealed no discernible differences in the number of comments (strengths of the essay, areas for improvement) made and the content and presentation of these comments between the two groups. Pedagogical implications pertaining to the potential impact of anonymous marking on feedback processes are discussed.     

An Experimental Study to Measure the Contribution of Motion Pictures and Slide-Films to Learning Certain Units in the Course Introduction to Nursing Arts

This teaching study tested whether guiding invented spelling through a Vygotskian approach to feedback would facilitate kindergarten children's entry into literacy more so than phonological awareness instruction. Participants included 40 kindergarteners whose early literacy skills were typical of literacy-rich classrooms, and who were receiving a structured balanced literacy curriculum. The children were randomly assigned to one of two teaching conditions (phonological awareness; invented spelling) and participated in 16 teaching sessions over an 8-week period in kindergarten. Before these teaching sessions, the groups were equivalent in early literacy and language skills including alphabetic knowledge, phonological awareness and oral vocabulary. Children in both conditions saw growth in alphabetic knowledge and phonological awareness (marked by large effect sizes), but the invented-spelling group showed more growth in invented spelling sophistication and learned to read more words on posttest. These advantages were reflected in medium to large effect sizes. Follow-up assessment in Grade 1 revealed potential lasting advantages for the invented spelling group. These findings support the view that with guidance and developmentally appropriate feedback, invented spelling promotes early literacy by providing a milieu for children to explore the relations between oral and written language.     

The Effects of Alternative Flowcharting Techniques on Performance on Procedural Tasks

Many individuals tend to have difficulty completing complex procedural tasks that require branching. Neither prose–based nor list–based instructions have been efficient in alleviating this difficulty. Traditional flowcharts have proven more effective in helping individuals to complete complex procedural tasks, but only after several practice sessions. However, it is possible that the use of map–like symbols may eliminate the need for repeated flowchart practice. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of flowcharts utilizing map–like symbols on performer efficiency in completing a complex procedural task. The results of this study indicated no significant difference between the use of map–like symbols and traditional flowcharts in helping performers to complete complex procedural tasks. However, both graphic presentation formats were found to be significantly more efficient than a list–based presentation of information. It was expected than an intuitive map–like presentation would be more efficient than a list–based format. However, the efficiency of the flowchart presentation under unpracticed conditions was unexpected, based on prior research.