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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
11. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch PaperPoint Architecture
12. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch Authoring of Handout Templates
13. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch PaperPoint Prototype (F05 and F06)
14. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch Structure (F05)
15. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch Navigational and Video Controls (F03)
16. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch Pointer and Annotation Controls (F1)
17. USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, signer@inf.ethz.ch Interactive Note Sheets (F02)
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)
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
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