“Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible."
- Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland
If there was one tool I could convince people to try it would be Office Mix. Whether you are flipping a classroom, teaching online, or making up a snow day, Mix allows you to "mix" multiple sources of information into a PowerPoint deck, narrate your presentation, and include questions students need to answer - and you can incorporate it into Blackboard Learn as a graded assignment.
I used Mix to create learning activities that incorporate videos from NASA and ESA that I remixed using Adobe Premiere and Audition, OER or public domain images and graphics, and illustrations and animations I created myself using Adobe Illustrator and Animator. I included multiple choice, multiple answer, or true/false questions for students to answer as they worked through the activity. I did not use a traditional textbook; I provided access to a free, online text from OpenStax for students to use as a reference for anything about which they needed more information.
Feedback from students was quite positive. Roughly 2/3 of the way through the course, I asked for feedback. Comments related to the learning activities include:
- "I actually liked this course. It took a different approach than the run of the mill, read a book, take a test. Doing that I do not retain any information."
- "I really enjoy the Learning activities. This is where I feel that I learn the most. I believe that after this semester concludes, I will remember a lot of what I learned from this course."
- "I really enjoy the learning activity lectures at the beginning of the chapter. They are personal, interactive, and informative."
- "This is one of the first online classes that I've taken and I honestly wish they were all like this class. I think the learning activities are really helpful and make it feel like I'm actually in a classroom learning that lesson for the week."
- "I also like the learning activities and they give a classroom feel...Unlike classrooms, I enjoy being able to rewind and listen again, if necessary."
- "So far, I will say this has been the most interactive course I've taken to date. I like the videos that are made weekly to cover the important topics and bullet points, and that it's actually the teachers voice."
- "The questions spread throughout the presentation help to give me an idea if I understand what I’ve heard so far, and it’s particularly nice that instead of being penalized for getting them wrong, I can instead go back through the section and try again."
Tips for a Good Mix
I wrote earlier in the Teach Me Tuesday blog about how to avoid death by PowerPoint, and all of those tips apply to creating a good Mix.Write a Script
I strongly recommend writing a narration in the notes area of your PowerPoint slide before you begin your narration. You can print the notes view to a PDF to share with your students, for those who may prefer to refer back to written material rather than audio. It also helps you to keep your narration focused and short. The first semester I used Mix, I didn't narrate with a script. The second semester, I redid the narrations - using the same slide content - and following a script cut the length of the Mix down by about 30% on average.Keep It Short
Normally, I say keep instructional videos under ten minutes, if not shorter. There is some research showing that engagement in video actually falls off after about 2 minutes, although that seems to be longer for instructional video. However, the ability to incorporate questions for assessment into your Mix extends that optimal time. You can combine segments of 2-6 minutes of narration and video with questions in between to extend that engagement time.After using Mix for a year and looking at the analytics including average time spent by students viewing a Mix, I suggest that a completed Mix should be no more than about a half hour in length, including all of questions for students to answer, with the optimal length around 15-20 minutes I use three learning activities Mixes each week for the Fall and Spring semesters, and 3-5 per week for the Full Summer semester. Since students also complete a lab, an social activity, and an interactive homework assignment, that's the equivalent of the amount of time students would spend in class for a 3-credit course.
Be Creative
Don't be afraid to be creative. No Mix is set in stone, so if something doesn't work the way you think it should have, change it for the next semester. Play around with graphics and animation on your PowerPoint slide to make them visually interesting and to support your content. Look for OER (Open Education Resources) you can incorporate. Do Google image searches and look for graphics you can use with or without attribution. Think about what YOU like to see in videos on YouTube or Facebook, and try to recreate those looks.And give me a call if you need some help. I spent a year learning Adobe products, and while I am by no means an expert, I am getting pretty good at editing videos and drawing illustrations, and I am really good at making the most of PowerPoint graphics and animations. After making and revising over 40 Mixes over the past year, if I haven't done it already, if it can be done, I can probably help you figure out how to make it work.
Start Slow but Persevere
While Mix is easy to learn, it is time consuming. I wouldn't recommend that anyone do what I did, which was to convert an entire course in one semester, while running the course at the same time. 20:1 is an optimistic development ratio - a 30 minute Mix can take 10 hours to create (another reason to keep them short), so instead of doing all of your instruction in Mixes the first time out, try supplementing what you already do with one Mix per week or topic that covers those concepts students struggle with most. Then add in some more that following semester, and before you know it, you will have a completely interactive course.
To get started with Office Mix, read my post in the Teach Me Tuesday Blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment