Week 4- Designing Instructional Media

This week in class we discussed designing instructional media.

There are four main points to keep in mind when creating media, such as powerpoints, that are intended to educate. The first point is contrast. Contrast deals with the brightness of text against its background. It is good to use a dark background with lighter text or vice-versa. However, when using colors it is important to keep them consistent throughout the presentation. The second point is repetition. By repeating the same font types, bullets, and boarders the viewer can focus just on the content being taught and not get distracted by the different stylistic changes in the presentation. Alignment can also be a major factor, if the alignment is off(not in the standard left to right), then the readers have to use their cognitive abilities to decipher the text and will not fully comprehend it. Finally, proximity is also a key factor. Associations between related things should be in the same area where they are not too far apart but not too close together. It is also good to keep the number of words on the page down. Just use the key facts.

When it comes to using graphics, one should not interrupt the text to use decorative graphics that don't enhance the learning process. It is important not to over use animations and transitions between slides on PowerPoints that may be distracting as well as having backgrounds that are very busy. I also learned that there is a natural path that the eyes follow which is starts in the left middle of a graphic and circles around. So the important information should be place at the beginning of the arc first.

At the end of your presentation, it is good to sum everything up and perhaps conduct follow up activities that drive home the lessons that you taught.

While I do not think that I will be giving presentations on a regular basis like a teacher might, there will probably be some times where I, as a telecommunication teacher, may have to pitch an idea I've had to an executive and want him to remember me out of the other presenters he is going to listen to. It was interesting to learn that while PowerPoint applications give you multitudes of templates, bullets, etc. The best way to get information across is by keeping it simple and just using the key facts.

The video below gives a humorous approach to how NOT to use a PowerPoint. It covers many of the topics that we learned.



The next video is a more serious approach to effective instructional media that really focuses on the content of the presentation and not as much the slides itself. It also provides extra tips like instead of putting your main/biggest point on the bottom of the slide, it is better to put them at the top where the audience will most likely read and see it.