DE Oracle @ UMUC

PowerPoint, Animated Avatars, and Going Green: Team Teaching Multimedia

David Taylor

Senior Advisor EWC

School of Undergraduate Studies

Published: September-October 2009

Category: » Online-pedagogy » Teaching-strategies

Taught by Dr. Sabrina Fu, Individuals, Society and Environmental Sustainability (BEHS 3980) guides students through a multidisciplinary study of how humans can change their daily behavior to survive on a planet with dwindling resources.

Because of the course's emphasis on individual awareness and responsibility, Dr. Fu wanted Summer 2009 students to work together to create multimedia presentations to help others understand the environmental challenges we face as a species.

Dr. Fu contacted UMUC’s Effective Writing Center (EWC) to arrange a multi-part guest lecture to guide students in the creation of their presentations. If selected, the students’ presentations would be added to UMUC's student Web site, which is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and provides the UMUC community with information and resources for environmental sustainability.

During the fifth week of the course, the EWC conducted a conference with threads on "new literacy" techniques, including information mapping and basic principles of document design. As a follow-up activity, students were provided with video instruction on the use of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to design a "lorem ipsum" (dummy copy) draft of their projects. Students submitted their designs and were given individualized video feedback via videos on YouTube. Examples of feedback:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVBjIqKd6Ic
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXZTzBBMacU

During Week Six, students' individual needs for PowerPoint instruction were assessed based on their submitted work. The assessment provided the basis for a series of PowerPoint instructional videos that focused on techniques such as custom motion paths and photo manipulation. This video series is now part of the EWC’s multimedia library:

• Introduction to Animation  
• Grid Lines, Drawing Lines, Photo Formating
• Motion Paths
• Slide Headers
• Sequence & Process Animations

During Week Seven, the class of 21 students was divided into four groups and tasked with creating a PowerPoint presentation for publication on UMUC's student Web site. Threads for this conference included topics such as storyboarding, avatars, audio files, and advanced PowerPoint techniques. Throughout the group project week, student groups were monitored and their questions and technical needs responded to daily in the group area. FAQs from all groups were posted in a common area so that groups could benefit from each other’s questions and progress.

Each group was outstanding. The students quickly delegated the many sub-tasks required to produce this project:

• Outline and storyboard content.
• Design a PowerPoint template for welcome slide and content slides.
• Research the topic and document sources.
• Write a presentation script and record it.
• Build and animate the PowerPoint slides.
• Edit and proofread for public presentation.

All four group projects were turned in by the deadline. For each project, an animated avatar (chosen by the group) was created to serve as the spokesperson for each presentation and then for a video produced of each presentation. Here are the four group projects in video format with avatars:

• Landfill Waste, the 3Rs and Sustainability
• E-Waste
• Unsustainable Trendy Fashions
• What is Your Environmental Footprint?

For their final project in the course, students were allowed to choose between writing a traditional research paper or creating a PowerPoint presentation using the skills they were taught and practiced during the group project.

Student feedback from the course indicated that integration of multimedia into the course and creative assignments made for an outstanding learning experience.