Thursday, June 11, 2009
We've all sat through one of those presentations where the animated
slides are more interesting than the speaker. Bold and brassy
titles slide into view, tasty slices of pie chart fill the screen
one by one, and a hail of arrows spikes the points the lecturer
hopes to highlight.
But, are these custom animations and slide fades and dissolves
actually adding anything to the lecture, or do they have a dark
side that detracts from the message and impacts negatively on the
message being presented?
Microsoft PowerPoint has, over the last couple of decades, become
the tool of choice for creating instructional slideshows. Long gone
for most are the overhead projector with its fickle fan and its
high-temperature and temperamental bulb, the smudgy marker pen, and
the transparent plastic sheet.
Instead, lecturers, speakers and anyone else with a visual message
to present with their talk uses PowerPoint and its ilk to present
their digital slides. According to the authors of a study in the
International Journal of Innovation and Learning published this
month, many instructors use these options regularly with the
impression that such effects enhance student learning by allowing
concepts to be introduced incrementally.
Stephen Mahar of the University of North Carolina Wilmington and
colleagues have explored the impact of custom animation in
PowerPoint lectures and examined the idea that custom animation
may, in fact, negatively impact student learning.
To test their hypothesis, the team recorded two versions of a
PowerPoint lecture. The presentations differed only in the presence
of animation to incrementally present information. They then showed
students either the animated or non-animated lecture and then
tested the students recall and comprehension of the lecture.
The team found a marked difference in average student performance,
with those seeing the non-animated lecture performing much better
in the tests than those who watched the animated lecture. Students
were able to recall details of the static graphics much better.
Animated slides meant to present information incrementally actually
require greater concentration, which makes it harder to remember
content as well as reducing overall exposure time to the "complete"
slide, the researchers found.
Although students appear to like the use of animations in lectures
delivered using PowerPoint, there is now strong evidence that
animation is nothing more than an entertaining distraction.
The team points out that their study was applied only to the
teaching of new concepts. It is possible that teaching a technique
might work more effectively with animated, rather than static,
slides. Follow-up work will investigate that possibility.
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Inderscience Publishers
Thanks to Inderscience Publishers for this article.