Abstract
This study sought to identify the perceptions of faculty in utilizing Microsoft PowerPoint as an authoring tool. This research posited that Microsoft PowerPoint has some multimedia authoring features and can possibly be used as a single-point multimedia authoring tool for faculty to utilize to create multimedia content for courses that they teach. However, PowerPoint is traditionally used as a presentation software, and despite its multimedia authoring capabilities, faculty may not be aware or even willing to use such features, having grown accustomed to their traditional use of the software. Nonetheless, from this study, it confirms that faculty are biased to seeing PowerPoint as a presentation tool. However, the study revealed that despite the initial myopia and limitations, post-intervention, participants showed a keen interest in using PowerPoint beyond the realm of presentations.
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Overview
Much of the academic literature regarding education in the 21st century reflect an implicit, and in some cases an explicit call, for a radical shift in the area of education. One reason for that, is the “Generation Y & Z” students, who are traditionally described as digital natives. It is argued that such students are born into a digital world, engage and interact with digital devices in their social environment (Male, 2016; Yuyun, 2018). Consequently, to teach such students, the education system needs to evolve and transform its teaching and learning environment to be as equally digitally immersive (Watanabe-Crockett, Jukes, & Churches, 2011). Therefore, over the past few years, learning environments have been changing as well as the teaching strategies.
This research targets the course design process, or more specifically, the development of digital (multimedia) resources for teaching. The course design process is the foundation upon which teaching is designed, developed and delivered to students. Consequently, there must be appropriate changes to the process, to facilitate the incorporation of greater digital technologies in teaching and learning. In the midst of all of these changes, is the human factor: the educator. Educators have a key role to play regarding the incorporation of technology into teaching strategies and delivery methods (Yuyun, 2018). Such developments hinge upon the digital competence of educators, educators’ ability to keep up with the changes in technology and mostly their willingness to adopt the digital technologies (DeSantis & Sutton, 2017).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Multimedia Learning: This is a learning concept that states that learning can be improved when properly designed multimedia resources are utilized.
Situated Learning: This is a learning concept that posits that individuals learn better when they are immersed in experiences similar to that which they will experience in the real world.
Interactive Multimedia: This is a multimedia artefact that allows the user to interact with the artefact and receive some form of feedback.
Discovery Learning: This is an element of the constructivist learning theory which allows the student to engage in a learning activity and chart the path to their own learning experiences.
Reflective Learning: This is an instructional tool used to assist students in engaging in meta-cognitive reflection on the work covered in a lesson. One tool to do this is journaling.
Authoring Tool: A type of software that is used to create digital output, for example, a word processor authors (produces) written documents, a graphic editor authors (creates) graphics.
Drill and Practice: This is a type of instructional strategy that relies upon repetition to assist in encoding content within the long-term memory of an individual.