How The PPTX Example On Module 1: Lecture Materials & Resources Page Performs One Of The Communication Functions Discussed This Week
Hector Dueñas Jr.
St. Thomas University
EDT-630-AP1 Multimedia Design and Dev
Steve Gregor, Ed.D.
June 30, 2022
St. Thomas University
EDT-630-AP1 Multimedia Design and Dev
Steve Gregor, Ed.D.
June 30, 2022
The PPTX example on Module 1: Lecture Materials & Resources Page has a mix of graphics and text. As part of this essay, the author will evaluate how effectively those said graphics are used. However, before doing so, this author would like to share that during the last 20 years, the author has worked in two roles; as a pastor of a small church and for the Division of Instructional Technology at Miami-Dade County Public Schools. During this time, one contention has always been how best to use graphics in presentation media such as Powerpoint. Historically, the push has been to load the presentation with lots of words to educate the audience. However, some might argue that the purpose of excessive words in a presentation could be to allow the presenter to read from the slides.
Personal observation has led this author to conclude that content delivery using graphics makes learning more enjoyable and engaging. Studies support this observation "students who received any kind of graphic produced significantly higher satisfaction ratings than the no graphics group, indicating that adding any kind of graphic greatly improves positive feelings." (Sung & Mayer, 2012, p. 1–1).
The two camps of thought are; first, the more words are better, and second, the more graphics are better. This author's personal bias leans more toward concepts learned in reading Slide: ology by Nancy Duarte. As Nancy Duarte says in her excellent book on presentations, "We groan when we have to attend a meeting with the slide deck as the star." (2008, p. xviii)
The central goal must be front-and-center during the entire process of developing the slide layout to communicate that goal clearly and in an engaging fashion. "Communication is about getting others to adopt your point of view, to help them understand why you're excited (or sad, or optimistic, or whatever else you are). If all you want to do is create a file of facts and figures then cancel the meeting and send in a report" writes Seth Godin in "Really Bad Powerpoint."
Experience as a teaching pastor (essentially a public speaker) has allowed the author to theorize and test various graphic styles in presentations. Personal anecdotal experience has demonstrated that unless chosen properly, random or non-optimal use of graphics could be distracting and even negatively affect learning retention. In other words, strategic graphics can be compelling for engagement and learning retention. As a case in point, in a recent study comparing various forms of graphics with the same core content, "students who received instructive graphics performed significantly better than the other three groups, indicating that the relevance of graphics affects learning outcomes" (Sung & Mayer, 2012, p. 1–1).
Personal experience as a small church pastor and working for the Division of Instructional Technology at Miami-Dade County Public Schools has gained this author insight into graphics. This aligns perfectly with the assignment on the Powerpoint example in Module one, which we will evaluate below.
Below is a comment on each slide based on the text. Aside from those specific observations, this author's only recommendations would have been first to add another slide that summarizes everything and secondly to have chosen the same font across all the slides for continuity and visual contrast.
Slide One The first slide appears neat and uncluttered. This author would, however, recommend changing the aspect ratio to 16:9 rather than 4:3 so the slides fill up the screen since all modern desktops, laptops, and most phones and other mobile devices, such as tablets, support that wide aspect ratio. In addition, optimizing the aspect ratio would eliminate the distraction of looking at the white space on the edges for those easily distracted.
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Slide Five Based on the lessons taught in the textbook, slide five does not use graphics effectively since, as the viewer, this author found himself distracted trying to understand if there was a relationship between the concepts. Also, the thin lines against the darker grey background do not provide enough contrast for visually challenged viewers.
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Slide Eight Slide eight does a relatively effective but not great job of using graphics to help understand the difference between relational, transformational, and interpretive graphics; however, a more strategic and less mentally distracting placement choice would have included these graphics on slide four. Additionally, a small caption of a few words under each image would have gained the viewer more profound insight. Finally, as a case in point, the interpretive graphic with motion did not leave this author with a good understanding of the concept.
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Slide Nine Slide nine does not need graphics, so their non-use of them is perfect for this slide. Based on concepts from the text, a more favorable design for the wording placement would have been placing the six points, all descending from top to bottom. A simple top to bottom placement on the slide instead of two columns side by side reduces the amount of time needed to move the viewers' eyes from point three to point four.
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Slide ElevenSlide eleven could have been better designed. The boxes focus the viewers' eyes first from left to right, then down, then from right to left. This counterclockwise placement may leave the viewer wondering if there was a reason why the last two boxes are in their respective locations. This choice in object placement causes the audience to overthink the design and placement unnecessarily.
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Slide TwelveSlide twelve is clean and readable, and the graphic was not distracting. However, as the viewer without the resource of a speaker to clarify, this author was left wondering if there was more to the relationship of the concepts in relation to the size of the circles next to the concepts. If this was not the intent, then the graphic may have been a distraction to effective learning.
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Slide ThirteenSlide thirteen is the final slide; as the viewer, the large font is easy on the eyes. If this author were trying to optimize the presentation, he would have moved the concepts a little higher so that the word PowerPoint did not run into the template graphics on the bottom of the screen.
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References
Duarte, N. (2008). slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations (1st ed.). O'Reilly Media.
Sung, E., & Mayer, R. E. (2012). When graphics improve liking but not learning from online lessons. Computers in human behavior, 28(5), 1618–1625.
Sung, E., & Mayer, R. E. (2012). When graphics improve liking but not learning from online lessons. Computers in human behavior, 28(5), 1618–1625.