PowerPoint Multimedia Presentations in Computer Science Education: What Do Users Need?

Presentation given at USAB 2008, 4th Symposium on Usability & HCI for Education and Work, Graz, Austria.

ABSTRACT: PowerPoint is one of the most frequently used tools to present multimedia for educational purposes. Nevertheless, little is known about the users’ needs when using PowerPoint during lecturing. Our study focused on the presenter’s needs in this context of use. We interviewed nine university lecturers from the computer science department by means of a questionnaire. The results show that users require features that are not yet realised with PowerPoint. For example, the control and use of other media should be adequately integrated. Or the navigation within the slide collection should be improved to better meet the users’ needs. Based on our findings, we outline required system features and suggest solutions in form of a prototype.

Research paper: https://beatsigner.com/publications/powerpoint-multimedia-presentations-in-computer-science-education-what-do-users-need.pdf

Transcript

1. USAB 2008, November 21
   PowerPoint Multimedia Presentations in
   Computer Science Education
   What Do Users Need?
   Elke I. Reuss, Beat Signer and Moira C. Norrie
   Institute for Information Systems, ETH Zurich
   8092 Zurich, Switzerland
   

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2. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
   Motivation
   ▪ PowerPoint is one of the most commonly used
   presentation tools
   ▪ Little is known about user needs for delivering
   lectures with PowerPoint
   ▪ Our goal: investigate these user needs and
   develop an enhanced PowerPoint based
   presentation tool
   

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3. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
   Study Design
   ▪ 9 computer science faculty members, age 25-62
   ▪ ETH Zurich and University of Zurich
   ▪ Method
   ▪ structured interviews (on average 37 minutes)
   ▪ collected a sample presentation from each participant
   ▪ Questions
   ▪ status quo of PowerPoint in lectures
   ▪ does PowerPoint satisfy the user needs or what
   additional functionality is desired
   

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4. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
   Setup
   ▪ Hardware
   ▪ laptop (n=8) and tablet PC (n=1)
   ▪ pointing device: laser pointer (n=7) or stick (n=1)
   ▪ remote control (n=6)
   ▪ Software
   ▪ PowerPoint 2007 (n=4), PowerPoint 2004 (n=1) and
   PowerPoint 2003 (n=4)
   ▪ All participants use PowerPoint since more
   than 7 years
   Results
   

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5. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
   Content and Organisation
   ▪ all participants sort the
   slides in the order they
   intend to present them
   ▪ most participants (n=8)
   access the slides in a
   linear order
   MIN_SLID
   MAX_SLID
   MEAN_SLID
   Trial
   0
   10
   20
   30
   40
   50
   60
   70
   80
   90
   100
   Measure
   min max mean
   number of slides
   Results
   

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6. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
   Content and Organisation …
   ▪ most participants (n=8)
   use extra slides
   ▪ filed at the end (n=6)
   ▪ filed as hidden slide (n=2)
   ▪ stored in separate file (n=2)
   TEXT FORM GRAPH
   Trial
   0
   10
   20
   30
   40
   50
   60
   70
   80
   90
   100
   Measure
   %
   text formulas graphics
   type of content
   Results
   

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7. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
   Presenting Information
   ▪ All participants like to move around during a
   presentation
   ▪ Most participants use additional types of media
   ▪ black-/whiteboard (n=9)
   ▪ overhead slides (n=7)
   ▪ videos (n=6)
   ▪ software/application demos (n=2)
   ▪ flipcharts (n=1)
   Results
   

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8. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
   Implications
   Description
   Highlight and annotate slide content
   Use blank "sheets"
   Use video controls
   Use system mobile
   Orientate efficiently within slide collection
   See content of current and nearby slides
   Feature
   F01
   F02
   F03
   F04
   F05
   F06
   

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9. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
   PaperPoint
   ▪ Interactive PowerPoint
   paper handouts
   ▪ Mobile presentation
   tool (F04)
   ▪ Based on
   ▪ Anoto's Digital Pen and
   Paper technology
   ▪ iServer/iPaper platform
   

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10. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
    Digital Pen and Paper
    ▪ Pattern license and
    camera technology
    offered by Anoto
    ▪ virtual paper space of
    60 million km2
    ▪ Pen manufacturers
    ▪ Nokia
    ▪ Maxell
    ▪ Adapx
    ▪ Livescribe
    

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11. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
    PaperPoint Architecture
    

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12. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
    Authoring of Handout Templates
    

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13. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
    PaperPoint Prototype (F05 and F06)
    

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14. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
    Structure (F05)
    

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15. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
    Navigational and Video Controls (F03)
    

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16. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
    Pointer and Annotation Controls (F1)
    

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17. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
    Interactive Note Sheets (F02)
    

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18. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
    Other PaperPoint Features
    ▪ Support for multiple pens
    ▪ collaborative presentations
    ▪ brainstorming sessions
    ▪ Recording and replay of entire presentations
    ▪ Digital and physical customisation of PaperPoint
    handout layout
    ▪ General PaperPoint interface
    ▪ integration of other presentation tools (e.g. Keynote)
    

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19. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
    Conclusions
    ▪ Investigation of user needs for "PowerPoint
    lecturing"
    ▪ features F01-F06
    ▪ Interactive paper-based PaperPoint prototype
    (addressing F01-F06)
    ▪ Future work: evaluation of PaperPoint prototype
    

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20. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch
    Further Information
    ▪ Interactive Paper Lab @ ETH Zurich
    ▪ http://www.ipaper.inf.ethz.ch
    ▪ Commercial products based on similar ideas
    ▪ Oxford Papershow and Anoto penPresenter
    Beat Signer and Moira C. Norrie, PaperPoint: A Paper-Based Presentation
    and Interactive Paper Prototyping Tool, Proceedings of TEI 2007, First
    International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction, Baton
    Rouge, USA, February 2007
    Beat Signer, Fundamental Concepts for Interactive Paper and
    Cross-Media Information Spaces, ISBN 978-3-8370-2713-6, May 2008
    

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