Concurrent Sessions

From PowerPoint Slides to Online Lectures

Tue 11:00 – 11:45AM — Chestnut B
Kathy Fletcher, West Virginia University

Discussion of why just putting the same PowerPoint slides online used in a traditional classroom is not sufficient to serve as a stand-alone substitute for a lecture. Detailed slide notes and narration are critical to more closely simulating a classroom lecture. The creation of slide notes can be used as a script for narration and will assist with creating accessible content. Narration adds a human touch but can also greatly increase the final PowerPoint file size, a problem for course management systems and for students with low bandwidth internet connections. For online lectures to be viewed asynchronously on demand by students, several instructors convert PowerPoint files to Flash movies. A wide variety of software tools can be used for this task. This presentation will discuss using Adobe Presenter as an easy way to add narration and Flash demonstrations to a PowerPoint file that can then be published to Flash or PDF. Adobe Presenter is bundled with Adobe Acrobat Professional Extended v9 and with other permutations of Adobe Creative Suites. For online instructors who schedule synchronous online lectures and group discussions using a web conference tool such as Wimba Classroom, PowerPoint slides can be imported for display during the web conference session. authorPOINT Lite is free software that can convert PowerPoint slides with narration to a Flash movie – not as many features as Adobe Presenter, Articulate Presenter, or the full version of authorPOINT but many colleges across the country have adopted it as an inexpensive tool for their faculty. Best practices for improved image quality, reduced file size, and ensuring content is accessible to all learners will also be covered.

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