PowerPoint’s power in the classroom: enhancing students’ self-efficacy and attitudes

The current study examined the effects of non-interactive computer assisted instruction on students’ performance, self-efficacy, motivation, and attitudes. Half the lectures presented to two Introduction to Psychology college classes were taught in a traditional lecture format and half were accompanied by PowerPoint multimedia. Lecture order was counterbalanced across classes. Whereas lecture style did not affect academic performance, students had more positive attitudes about the course and greater self-efficacy with PowerPoint. In the class that started with PowerPoint lectures, student motivation declined after PowerPoint stopped accompanying lectures. However, student motivation did not increase after PowerPoint was added in the other class.     

iTunes University and the classroom: Can podcasts replace Professors?

iTunes University, a website with downloadable educational podcasts, can provide students the opportunity to obtain professors’ lectures when students are unable to attend class. To determine the effectiveness of audio lectures in higher education, undergraduate general psychology students participated in one of two conditions. In the lecture condition, participants listened to a 25-min lecture given in person by a professor using PowerPoint slides. Copies of the slides were given to aid note-taking. In the podcast condition, participants received a podcast of the same lecture along with the PowerPoint handouts. Participants in both conditions were instructed to keep a running log of study time and activities used in preparing for an exam. One week from the initial session students returned to take an exam on lecture content. Results indicated that students in the podcast condition who took notes while listening to the podcast scored significantly higher than the lecture condition. The impact of mobile learning on classroom performance is discussed.     

The timing of online lecture slide availability and its effect on attendance, participation, and exam performance

The use of PowerPoint slides has become an almost ubiquitous practice in university classrooms, however little research has examined whether the timing of lecture slide availability to students (either before or after lecture) affects classroom behaviour or exam performance. Using a 2 (slide availability condition) × 2 (course type) between-subjects design, the present study examined lecture slide availability differences in attendance, participation, and exam performance in two courses – Research Methods and Cognitive Development – taught in both the Fall and Winter semesters. For each type of course, lecture slides were made available on the course website before lecture in one semester and after lecture in the other semester. Course material was held constant across semesters. Results showed that mean attendance was higher when slides were available before lecture, but only for the type of course that did not include attendance points as part of students’ final grades. For students who participated in class, participation was more frequent when slides were available before lecture. No significant difference in exam performance was found between lecture slide availability conditions, however. These findings suggest that making lecture slides available to students before lecture may lead to better overall attendance and participation, but exam performance is determined by more than just whether or not students have lecture slides available for their note-taking.     

The role of interest and images in slideware presentations

With the advent of technologies that allow lecturers to develop presentations using software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, and OpenOffice Impress (referred to generically here as “slideware”), lectures and meetings are beginning to resemble cinematic experiences rather than the text filled transactions that have been the norm for the last decade. Unfortunately, there has been little research on slideware use. Furthermore, literature on this topic indicates that lectures typically do little to encourage elaborative thinking. To address this gap in the literature, we tested 90 participants who each viewed a lecture on the visual system that consisted of three different styles of presentation: (1) Image Congruent: presenting images that were relevant to the target information, (2) Image Incongruent: presenting images that were relevant to the narration but not the target information and, (3) Text Based: presenting text summaries of the narration. Throughout each of these conditions, participants provided ratings of interest and then completed a quiz to measure recognition, recall and transfer. Our results revealed that participants were more interested in the image-rich slides than bullet points, and that accuracy (but not interest) depended on whether the images were relevant to the content of the lecture or not.     

The impact of presentation graphics on students’ experience in the classroom

To investigate the benefits and perceived effectiveness of instructional technology, students enrolled in several courses were compared on student evaluations of instruction, grades and an attitudinal questionnaire. The instructors of the courses taught the same course across two successive semesters, using traditional “chalk-and-talk” methods the first semester, and PowerPoint the next; all other techniques (e.g., exams, lecture material) were held constant. Results suggest that organization and clarity, entertainment and interest, professor likeability, and good professor behaviors were enhanced with PowerPoint although final grades were not.     

An analysis of the use of virtual delivery of undergraduate lectures

Educators and technologists have been wrestling with the most appropriate way in which to use information technology in teaching and in learning, for some years. We have seen online course notes, both linear, hypertext and hypermedia format, lecturer/student communication via electronic bulletin boards or via e-mail, multimedia courseware with student-directed learning and many others. All of these approaches have had limited impact on mainstream teaching in our universities and colleges and we believe one of the reasons for this is that these attempts all represent a significant shift in the normal student–lecturer relationship and an enormous amount of effort on the part of the lecturer. In our work we have addressed this by using technology to replicate the traditional mode of delivery of lectures to a class. The presentation of lecture material was digitally recorded, both audio and synchronised visuals, and made available for students to take in their own time. In addition we provided 3 orthogonal means to access this material. The present paper describes our analysis of the use of these `virtual lectures' by a class of over 100 students. Our analysis includes log files of all accesses to the online material, pre-course and post-course questionnaires and anonymous questionnaire feedback, some of this is compared to exam performance. Results indicate that mode of delivery, student usage and a student's technical bias have no impact on overall exam performance.     

A usability comparison of PDA-based quizzes and paper-and-pencil quizzes

In the last few years, schools and universities have incorporated personal digital assistants (PDAs) into their teaching curricula in an attempt to enhance students’ learning experience and reduce instructors’ workload. One of the most common uses of PDAs in the classroom is as a test administrator. This study compared the usability effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction of a PDA-based quiz application to that of standard paper-and-pencil quizzes in a university course. Effectiveness was measured as students’ quiz scores and through a mental workload questionnaire; efficiency was the time it took students to complete each quiz; and satisfaction was evaluated using a subjective user satisfaction questionnaire. The study showed the PDA-based quiz to be more efficient, that is, students completed it in less time than they needed to complete the paper-and-pencil quiz. No differences in effectiveness and satisfaction were found between the two quiz types. Computer anxiety was not affected by the quiz type. For these reasons, as well as other advantages to both students (e.g., real-time scoring) and teachers (e.g., less time spent on grading), PDAs are an attractive test administration option for schools and universities.     

Telelearning in the virtual lecture theatre

The concept of a virtual lecture theatre has been realised at the Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Social Sciences in Nuremberg since 1995. Interdisciplinary courses are being held for local students at one faculty and are interactively broadcast for students joining in from remote locations. Various demands concerning the teleteaching environment have to be met in order to enable remote students to attend lectures virtually and interact synchronously by sending contributions via conferencing tools to the central lecture theatre. In addition, recorded lectures are digitised and stored on a multimedia server to provide asynchronous access for all students, constituting a “lecture on demand” system. Furthermore, remote students are able to co-operate virtually with other students, i.e. join exercise groups by means of video and audio communication, share screens and applications, exchange documents and software, etc. To fulfil the corresponding multimedia communication needs, a broadband ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) network connects the lecture theatre in Nuremberg with remote lecture theatres, remote conferencing rooms and separate workplaces at the university or at home.     

Evaluation and assessment of a biomechanics computer-aided instruction

The Biomechanics Tutorial (BT) is a computer-aided instructional (CAI) tool that expedites the transition from lecture to application for students in an introductory biomechanics class. It contains a review of basic concepts of rigid body mechanics and functional anatomy and combines them in a way that the student can become confident and efficient in building biomechanical models. The tutorial was used by juniors and seniors. The Biomechanics Tutorial contains mechanics and yanatomy reviews and quizzes, quiz results, examples of simulations, a study guide, and practical anatomical simulations that are presented as laboratory exercises for students to explore and analyze. We conducted an objective evaluation using statistical analyses and a subjective evaluation using student questionnaires to assess the tutorial as an instructional aid that accompanied the professor's explanations of basic mechanics and functional anatomy concepts. Pre-tutorial mechanics quiz scores indicated that 86% of the students did not have sufficient mastery of mechanics concepts. The BT significantly (p<0.05) improved the performance on the post-tutorial mechanics quiz. A regression model used to test the effect of the tutorial on final grade while controlling for confounding factors (i.e., GPA and prerequisite classes), did not show that the BT significantly improved the final grades between the control and treatment groups. Students felt the BT was successful in helping them to better understand the principles of industrial ergonomics. This evaluation of the Biomechanics Tutorial is a contribution to the limited amount of research that shows a positive effect of CAI on college student achievement. The results of this study are discussed.     

Limits of PowerPoint’s Power: Enhancing students’ self-efficacy and attitudes but not their behavior

The effects of accompanying lectures with computer-mediated PowerPoint presentations or PowerPoint generated overheads on students’ self-efficacy, attitudes, course performance, and class-related behaviors were examined. Two Introduction to Developmental Psychology sections were initially taught with lectures accompanied by either overheads or computer-mediated presentations. The teaching format was switched halfway through the semester. Students reported higher self-efficacy and more positive attitudes toward the class with computer-mediated presentations. They also claimed that the website was more interesting and useful under these teaching conditions, indicating a halo effect of the computer-mediated presentations. However, the teaching format did not appear to affect course-related behavior, such as performance on exams, class attendance, participation in class discussions, or course website usage.     

Electronic delivery of lectures in the university environment: An empirical comparison of three delivery styles

The purpose of this study was to consider the efficacy and popularity of “Virtual Lectures” (text-based, structured electronic courseware with information presented in manageable “chunks”, interaction and multimedia) and “e-Lectures” (on-screen synchrony of PowerPoint slides and recorded voice) as alternatives to traditional lectures. We considered how three modes of delivery compare when increasingly deeper forms of learning are assessed and also student reaction to electronic delivery. Fifty-eight students in three groups took three topics of a human genetics module, one in each delivery style. Results indicated no overall greater efficacy of either delivery style when all question types were taken into account but significantly different delivery-specific results depending on which level of Bloom’s taxonomy was assessed. That is, overall, questions assessing knowledge consistently achieved the highest marks followed by analysis, comprehension, evaluation and application. Students receiving traditional lectures scored significantly lower marks for comprehension questions. Students receiving Virtual Lectures scored high for knowledge, comprehension and application but significantly lower for analysis and evaluation questions. The e-Lectures scored high for knowledge questions and were the median for all question types except application. Questionnaire analysis revealed a preference for traditional lectures over computer-based but nevertheless an appreciation of the advantages offered by them.     

A blended learning lecture delivery model for large and diverse undergraduate cohorts

A blended learning model was developed to enhance lecture delivery in a large, diverse introductory psychology unit, introducing the use of an online, personalized learning system for lecture preparation and using lecture time to extend students' understanding. Changes to the assessment included diagnostic, formative and summative online quizzes. Using hierarchical multiple regression to account for the variance associated with prior achievement and background knowledge, the results show that students who completed the online formative assessments had significantly higher scores on summative assessment tasks, and that scores were even higher for students who used these resources repeatedly. Changes to future implementations of the model are suggested to improve student engagement in formative assessment, and to facilitate lecturer's use of reports on student progress to focus and improve the quality of discussion in the face-to-face lectures.     

Comparing hybrid learning with traditional approaches on learning the Microsoft Office Power Point 2003 program in tertiary education

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a hybrid learning approach to deliver a computer science course concerning the Microsoft office PowerPoint 2003 program in comparison to delivering the same course content in the form of traditional lectures. A hundred and seventy-two first year university students were randomly assigned into two teaching method groups: traditional lecture instruction (TLI) and hybrid lecture instruction (HLI). Each group received six 95-min periods of instruction divided into 4 sections: a) 5-min brief outline of the key learning points, b) 40-min lecture on general knowledge c) 45-min constructivist-inspired learning activities and d) 5-min summary on key learning points. In the beginning and the end of this study students completed a 17-item multiple choice knowledge test. Two-way analysis of variances (ANOVA), with repeated measures on the last factor, were conducted to determine effect of method groups (TLI, HLI) and measures (pre-test, post-test) on knowledge test. The measures main effect was significant, as well as the groups x measures interaction effect. Two independent-samples t test were conducted to follow up the significant interaction. Differences in mean ratings of knowledge performance between the two teaching groups were not significantly different at first measure, while the TLI method group yielded a significantly lower mean rating at second measure. The findings indicated that HLI approach might be a superior option for undergraduate students on learning the Microsoft office PowerPoint 2003 program.     

Engagement and performance in a first year natural resource science course

Quantifying student engagement with online learning resources on virtual learning environments such as BlackBoard is important in understanding how these technologies enhance the student learning. In the present study, it was examined when, and how often, first‐year students accessed lecture recordings, lecture slides, and lecture notes via BlackBoard, in an introductory natural resource course taken by both on campus students and remote students. The findings demonstrated that lecture recordings were not well utilized by students—although only 58% of on campus students attended face‐to‐face lectures, less than 15% of absent students downloaded the missed lecture. Overall, more students downloaded lecture slides (an average of 63% per week) than notes (38%) or recordings (16%). Indeed, the average student downloaded only 1.1 types of the 3 online resources (recordings, slides, and notes) that were available each week, with 5.7% of students downloading all 3 types of resources, 23% downloading 2 types of resources, 42% downloading only 1 type of resource, and 29% downloading none of the 3 types of resources. Finally, remote students were more likely to download lecture notes and recordings than were on campus students. The information presented here is important in understanding student behaviour and engagement.     

Is the effectiveness of lecture capture related to teaching approach or content type?

The purpose of two related studies was to explore the relationships between course characteristics (teaching approach, content type, and level of curricular coordination), lecture-capture implementation, and learning in a veterinary medical education environment. Two hundred and twenty two students and 35 faculty members participated in the first study, which surveyed respondents regarding their perception of lecture-capture use and impact on learning. Four hundred and ninety one students participated in the second study, which compared scores on a standardized test of basic science knowledge among groups experiencing various levels of lecture-capture implementation. Students were most likely to view captured lectures in courses that moved quickly, relied heavily on lecture, were perceived as highly relevant to their future success, and contained information not available in other formats. A greater percentage of students than faculty perceived lecture capture as beneficial to learning. Higher views of captured lectures were associated with higher test scores in disciplines that relied most heavily on a straight-lecture teaching approach and had a basic science – research teaching context. The number of lecture-capture views was not significantly related to test scores in disciplines that relied less heavily on straight lecture for instruction and had a basic science – applied teaching context.     

Undergraduate students' use of information elicited during e-mail “tutorials”

This study considers those questions posed by students during e-mail “tutorials” to elicit information from “guest lecturers” and the use of that information by students in their essays. The “tutorials” were conducted for students in the U.K. by a “guest lecturer” in France. The “guest lecturer” was accredited as a tutor on the module for which the students were enrolled, and participated in the module by the provision of lecture notes prior to the e-mail tutorials. Data for the study, drawn from a comparative education assignment set for undergraduate students enrolled on the module, comprised surveys of students' perceived IT capabilities and attitudes towards IT, analyses of students' questions and analyses of students' essays. The findings of the study indicate (1) that tutees tend to pose questions to elicit information or clarification rather than to elicit the viewpoint or opinions of the “guest lecturer” and (2) that two-thirds of tutees' essays cited information elicited from the “guest lecturer”.     

Interactive lectures: Effective teaching and learning in lectures using wireless networks

Among the severe instructional shortcomings of lectures is their lack of interactivity. To overcome these problems, the learning environment of the interactive lecture is introduced, in which students and lecturer interact by using mobile computers in a wireless network. In an experimental study, 44 students participated in interactive and in conventional lecture meetings. A quiz service that allowed question to be posted, students’ answers to be evaluated, and the results to be presented graphically, was implemented on mobile computers. The participants rated the interactive condition better, also reporting higher levels of attention, activity and perceived learning success for this condition. Objective measures indicated a slight but insignificant difference toward better learning results in the interactive condition.     

Lecture capture with real‐time rearrangement of visual elements: impact on student performance

The primary goal of this study is to create and test a lecture‐capture system that can rearrange visual elements while recording is still taking place, in such a way that student performance can be positively influenced. The system we have devised is capable of integrating and rearranging multimedia sources, including learning content, the instructor and students' images, into lecture videos that are embedded in a website for students to review after school. The present study employed a two‐group experimental design, with 153 participants (145 females and 8 males) making up an experimental group in which lecture courses were recorded using the new lecture‐capture system, and 149 participants (140 females and 9 males) forming a control group whose lectures were recorded by traditional means. All participants were in the freshman college and studying Introduction to Computer and Information Science in one of six classes, and were randomly assigned to one of the two groups. The participants' midterm examination and final examination scores were collected as indicators of their academic performance, with their mathematics entrance scores used as a pre‐test. The findings obtained from analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) suggest that appropriate rearrangement of visual elements in lecture videos can significantly impact students' learning performance.     

Forms of control and interaction as determinants of lecture effectiveness in the electronic classroom

Electronic classrooms offer instructors and students a new way to interact with technology and each other. By understanding the dynamics of the classroom lecture environment and the ways in which multimedia can assist in the learning process, education can become a more active and engaging pursuit. This study focuses on the effects of control and interaction and their interaction. Based on results of studies that stress active exploration and “hands-on learning” it was predicted that learning in a learner-controlled context with complex interaction would lead to higher marks on a post-lecture quiz and subjective questionnaire. Results partially supported the benefits of learner control and complex interaction, particularly in the area of user satisfaction. Future research is suggested which may help to realize the potential benefits of multimedia tools in education and to meet the ideals of the electronic classroom.     

Students’ perceptions of teaching technologies, application of technologies, and academic performance

This study examined business students’ perceptions of four objectives (i.e., Enjoyment, Learning, Motivation, and Career Application) across five teaching technologies (i.e., Projector, PowerPoint, Video, the Internet, and Lecture), business professors’ effective application of technologies, and students’ academic performance. We collected data from 215 students at a regional state university in the USA. We developed Students’ Perceptions of Technology Scale, SPOTS, specifically for the present study, used the most rigorous criteria, and investigated reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and measurement invariance of this scale. Mean scores revealed that Video conveyed the highest amount of Enjoyment. PowerPoint provided the highest amount of Learning and Motivation. The Internet provided the highest Career Application for future jobs. Younger students preferred Video, whereas older students favored Lecture. Regression results showed that the use of Video for Learning, Projector and Lecture for Enjoyment, PowerPoint for career and Motivation, and the Internet for Learning contributed to professors’ teaching effectiveness. Students’ high ratings for professors’ effective use of the Lecture method and low expectation for the use of a Projector predicted their self-reported GPA (academic performance). Professors may use a different mix of technologies in the classroom and use them creatively in order to promote the most Learning for students and satisfy students’ Learning needs and objectives.