Lesson / session planning Module name: Luis

Date: 08 Dec 2016

Session type: This was a workshop for lecturers. It was called “Quick Tips for Dynamic PowerPoint - simple steps to turn your presentations into more engaging learning materials”. It is part of the training our team (Learning Enhancement Unit) provides to members of our Faculty and others. Student profile: In order to manage the number of participants and also to know who were coming, I set up an EvenBrite. I was expecting to not have more than 15 lecturers because it was a workshop style, so it would be necessary to have time to spend with each person. The booking system also allowed to have a look at the department of the participants. Actually, the most of them were coming from EC. It means that I was expecting people with good IT skills, so I trying to reinforce the pedagogical side instead. At the end, 8 students booked a place but only 4 came to the workshop.

Learning Outcomes of the session: By the end of this session, the students will be able to: § Be able to make more dynamic and engaging presentations; § Make collaborative PPT presentations; § Find engaging options to make slides available in Moodle; § Participate in the discussion: ‘Is PowerPoint killing communication?’ A rationale for your choice of method of delivery: (i.e. theoretical underpinning)

The workshop involved active learning, hands-on use of technology, and a discussion, supported by learning theory, on how PPT presentations should trigger interaction in classroom. Starting with some tips on how to make more dynamic presentations, the session showed good and feasible practices that can ensure students will engage with materials. Kolb & Fry (1975) identified a progression of learning which involves concrete experience, observation of and reflection on that experience, formation of abstract

concepts based upon the reflection, and the testing of the new concepts. This workshop considered the experience of attendees and promoted both critical thinking about those practices and the ability to build better presentations. Sometimes, the slides were empty and I was building the elements in front of students, demonstrating how to do it and having previously showed them some slides already done. This approach to design of learning materials by lectures is fundamental for the progression and deepening of cognitive understanding. I wanted to highlight the benefits of communication (Buckingham, 2007) and how the design of the digital materials should empower the interaction between lecturer, students and the content. This has to be the role of PPT presentations: to emphasise the most relevant data and help students to understand and retain the essential of the information we are teaching them.

Timings of the session: Time Duration Learning content / Activity 14:00

10 min

10 min 20 min

20 min

10 min

20 min

Tutor / Student What tutor / students are doing

Welcome and introducing learning outcomes Relevance of PPT in teaching Tips for good dynamic presentations (design

Tutor and students introducing themselves

Make collaborative PPT presentations with Google Docs Engaging options to make slides available in Moodle Slides printed: benefits of an interactive poster

Tutor and students discussing the advantages of creating presentations with Google Docs; Tutor showing how to create collaborative presentations and students testing it

Tutor introducing topic and students discussing their own practices Tutor showing some examples; students having a go

Tutor presenting multiple options to to make presentations available for students and students discussing the best options Tutor presenting the solution of Interactive poster: benefits of Students testing QR codes and

Equipment / Resources or Slide number

Slides Slides and websites: The Noun Project; Pixabay; Animated Gifs; Slides Carnival Multiples slides and Empty slides to show how to do it

Slideshare.net PDF (with notes) PDF Flip Printed Poster and iPad with the apps QR Code and

Time

Duration Learning content / Activity

Tutor / Student What tutor / students are doing

10 min

Is PowerPoint killing communication?

10 min

Feedback on teaching practice and farewell

Augmented Reality Tutor and students discussing the topic

Tutor asking students to provide feedback on teaching through an online survey

Equipment / Resources or Slide number Aurasma Slide with the topic; open Google doc to keep going with the discussion Online survey

Feedback from the session

Methods used to collect student feedback: As it was a small group of students (4) it considered it would sound not appropriate to have a formal feedback strategy during the session (for instance, Socrative, or other), because it was easier to ask each of them their thought on the different topics. That was a way to check if my learning was taking lace. At the end, I provided a link for a survey (both through a hand-out and by e-mail) with question about the teaching practices, explaining the purpose of it.

Analysis of student feedback received The feedback during the session was very positive. The lecturers were pleased to have participated in the session, having said that it was fruitful. There was a very impressive reaction to the interactive poster and the use of augmented reality. I gave 5-10 minutes at the end of the session to answer the survey, but some colleagues had to leave earlier and have not replied afterwards. So, the feedback is limited to two answers. This document shows the questions and the results of the survey: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6DEg289jQa0RjFkR3Fyb2g2WkE/view They considered the content useful for your teaching activities and the teaching methods and approaches employed was very good. On the preparation, planning and organisation of the workshop, the answers were good and very good, mostly because they were not told in advance to bring their laptops (the room did not have

computers). I can conclude that the feedback was very positive.

Personal reflection following delivery

The workshop went very well, even though there were a couple of technical issues – the quality of the projector was very poor and the wireless was not working properly. Another one was the fact that only two students had their laptops with them. In all the cases I was able to overcome the problems. I think the presentation of the topic went well and students were very interested in the topic. They engaged with the activities and discussions and were willing to have a go. Something I would do different would be to give more time for practice, at the end I felt it would be necessary to have more hands-on. It was very positive the idea of a interactive poster and lecturers said that it would be something they would like to try with students. There was a "wow effect" and they wanted to get the same reaction from their students. From my perspective, attendees were very pleased to have come to the workshop (they said that multiple times) and I was able to show how important is to mix technical and pedagogical activities to improve teaching by creating engaging materials for our students.