Academic

In a prior post, I was bragging about moving my PowerPoint lectures outside of the classroom by creating presentations with audio through Adobe Presenter. This is a lot of work, by the way, and I am not doing this just for fun. But why am I doing it? Yesterday, I received this email from one of my students: "I apologize if this seems like a dense question, but after watching the slides and doing the reading, it seems like they cover exactly the same thing.  Am I correct about this?"

Um ... yeah. Suddenly, I realized that by moving the slides outside of the classroom, I had changed their function. This was my response:

Actually, that is not only a perfectly sensible observation, but it also made me stop to consider why I am doing these slides. (That was sort of implied in your question, right?)

When I first started PowerPoint in the 90s, I used the slides as a means of getting everyone's brain on the topic in class. Then it occurred to me that this was not a terribly valuable use of class time. So I revised my slides to aid in organizing the class discussion. Rather than just lecturing from them, I would use them in conjunction with Socratic questioning. I actually liked that fairly well.

Putting them online destroys both of these functions, but several of your classmates have pointed out different functions: (1) some have told me that they are visual or aural learners, and the slides (especially the diagrams) really help them to understand the principles better; and (2) the slides provide an emphasis that the reading assignments lack (i.e., you can tell something about what I think it important by the subjects I choose to discuss and the subjects I choose to omit from the slides). Finally, I believe that repetition is quite beneficial to learning, so reading the book and listening to the slides are mutually reinforcing activities.

Now I will ask you the question that I asked my student: is that a convincing case for online slide presentations?

The question is whether using PowerPoint in this way is a material aid to learning. I should disclose the that students like the slides, and many have commented with approval on my decision to move them online. Some have told me that they listen to the presentations more than once. Another student told me that she takes notes while she listens and that having the presentations online allows her to stop the audio so that she can complete her notes or reflect on the principles being covered. Of course, she could do the same thing from the casebook, but she uses the slides (after reading, of course ... she is a conscientious student).