Pet Peeve: Online instructors making you watch powerpoints from their F2F class.

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by SurfDoctor, Aug 22, 2011.

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  1. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Does anyone else here roll their eyes when they see that an online instructor has assigned them to view a PowerPoint that he/she used in a face to face class? These presentations were designed as support for their lecture and were boring enough already, now they expect you to view them without any verbal input from the instructor.

    If the instructor would take the time to record audio of their lecture for each slide, which PowerPoint will do, then it would be a valuable resource, but just looking at the silent PowerPoint is like watching a video with the sound turned off; you can sometimes get an idea of what's going on, but you miss much of the true content. Waste of electrons!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 22, 2011
  2. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    I agree - it is missing the real "content"!
     
  3. major56

    major56 Active Member

    Personally, I believe PowerPoint presentation is non-innovative, used far too often, and is beyond boring (F2F or otherwise).:hypnotized:
     
  4. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    In this case, screencasting would make more sense, using a tool like Jing. It would be less boring, at least.
     
  5. major56

    major56 Active Member

    Agreed Steve…
     
  6. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Agreed. At this same school, different class, another instructor used Adobe Captivate to make very cool video of the lessons from her computer output and ended up with a PowerPoint-like lecture that was very good.

    Like someone else said, PowerPoint is so overused and often quite lame. ESPECIALLY, when they don't even bother to include their audio lecture.
     
  7. mattbrent

    mattbrent Well-Known Member

    Do you think it's overused because resources are limited? I use power points in my online class (with the audio lecture, by the way) because that's all I have access to. I export it as a video file and pop it up on YouTube and SchoolTube.

    -Matt
     
  8. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    I don't think that's lame at all, in fact it's pretty cool. It really becomes almost as good as attending the class F2F; especially if you design it to uniquely fit the online format. What's lame is when people use it as a crutch and neglect to put forth the proper effort to make the presentation sound. I have been in many F2F classes where the prof stands there are reads off the PowerPoint and the PowerPoint isn't all that great in the first place; these are probably the same people who load the PowerPoint in an online class without anything extra. Judging from what I know of you, I'll bet your stuff is rich and engaging.

    What really drives me nuts is when people use lots of the silly animations. Everyone has seen all of those things a million times and they become quite annoying.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 22, 2011
  9. edowave

    edowave Active Member

    Jing has a free version that works very well.
     
  10. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    I work in a traditional university (while attending a non-trad, go figure), and I've seen plenty of PPs used in class. It is a spectacular tool to use for live classes, but even in a live class it can be a disaster if done incorrectly.

    In the case of online classes, I don't see what would be so difficult with simply recording your audio lecture and making it available along with the PP. Even if you don't sync visuals with the audio, you can just make it available and let your students advance the slides on their own.

    Lastly... eh??? I can understand making a PP available, but I can't understand why flipping though the slides would ever be a requirement for the course.
     
  11. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    OH MY! Yes! Especially when it comes after a long pause and you see the presenter rubber-necking towards the screen waiting for it to happen like something spectacular or even something new is about to appear. Oh wait, nope, it was just a cute little clip art pencil drawing a checkmark. Sheesh.
     
  12. GeeBee

    GeeBee Member

    Edward Tufte calls this "PowerPoint Fluff." According to him, PowerPoint has its place, but that place is strictly as a "projector operating system." Don't use the crappy PP graphs, charts, tables, and certainly not the built-in clip art.

    He did stop short of claiming that PowerPoint was responsible for the space shuttle Challenger explosion. Just barely.

    If you aren't familiar with Tufte, you should Google him. No one knows more about visualizing data and communicating complex data effectively.
     
  13. edowave

    edowave Active Member

    Better yet, go to one of his day-long workshops. If you are a current student, you can get usually register at half the price. I went to his workshop in Atlanta.
     
  14. Randell1234

    Randell1234 Moderator

    Interesting Powerpoint story -

    Microsoft PowerPoint, you might love it or hate it. Hundreds of Swiss hate it. They are part of the newly formed Anti-PowerPoint Party (APPP), which wants the Swiss government to hold a referendum on the slideshow program. They say PowerPoint costs the Swiss economy 2.1 billion Swiss Francs a year, or US$2.5 billion. The APPP bases its claim on its conclusion that 85 percent of people who attend PowerPoint presentations actually lose productivity. The party's calling for supporters to sign its online petition and join its Facebook page. So far it has 153 Facebook members and fewer than 300 online signatures (it needs 100,000 for the country to hold a referendum). Despite current membership levels, the APPP hopes to grow to 33,000 members and become Switzerland's fourth-largest party, thus bringing the PowerPoint issue to the political agenda. "The more people talk about it, the more change will take place," says APPP founder Matthias Poehm. Oh and by the way, members have to buy Poehm's book "The PowerPoint Fallacy" to join the party.




    The First Worldwide Anti-PowerPoint-Party Founded (APPP)

    ZURICH, July 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

    The APPP is an international movement wanting to lift the PowerPoint issue to the awareness of the world-population.

    The APPP sees itself as the advocate of approximately 250 million citizens worldwide, who, every month, are obliged to be present during boring presentations in companies, and who have not been represented in politics until now.

    The movement regards the use of presentation-software, like PowerPoint, as the source of the problem. It is a grievance that superiors can dictate a PowerPoint use and that students are urged to use PowerPoint. The APPP says, that, in 95% of the cases, the flipchart would beat PowerPoint, based on the effect.

    The goal of the movement is to decrease the number of boring presentations worldwide, and that those, who want to renounce PowerPoint, will not have to justify themselves in the future. It is not PowerPoint that should be abolished, but only the PowerPoint constraint.

    To draw worldwide attention to their cause the movement chose the organizational form of an international party in Switzerland. Here every citizen of the world can become a member of a party. The APPP calls its members "proponents". It wants to become the fourth largest Swiss party with 33.000 members and thus make the PowerPoint issue a political issue that one talks widely and deeply worldwide. "The more people talk about it, the more change will take place," says APPP-founder Matthias Poehm.

    The APPP wants to draw attention to presentations, at which the participants consider their presence afterwards as futile. The Party calculated that hourly wages of the attendants alone result in suffering an annual economic damage of 350 billion Euros worldwide.

    Anti Powerpoint Party exists in 8 languages. Every citizen of the world can become a proponent online.
     
  15. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Wow, I don't hate PowerPoint quite that much. That is, unless they are especially against the animations, then I am in!
     

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