The Point of PowerPoint in SophLit

Method

1. Overview

Courses, teachers, environment

In both our studies (fall 1997 and fall 1998), two of us did the testing of PowerPoint in classes and the third focused on coordination and production. Mimi Barnard tested PPT in English 221, Major British Writers I, a survey from Beowulf to Johnson. Jana Anderson tested it in English 222, Major British Writers II, a survey from the late eighteenth century to the present. Both courses fulfill General Education requirements and therefore are dominated by non-English majors. Each teacher had two classes in the study: a "PPT" class and, as a control group, a "non-PPT" class, both with identical readings and assignments.

TitianIn the fall 1997 study, we were unable to control for classroom environment and equipment; to assure maximum integrity of the 1998 study, all four classes met in the same classroom, Jana's on MWF at 8:00 and 9:00 a.m., Mimi's on TR at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m We were fortunate to be able to use the Distance Learning Classroom in ACU's Center for Teaching Excellence. It is equipped with a Windows PC, a Macintosh, a digitizing document camera, a data projector, a VCR, three color television monitors, two video cameras, a projection screen, a white board, and a chalkboard. In the non-PPT classes, we did restrain ourselves from using the document camera to show pictures from books; to do so might have spoiled the control groups by having an influence similar to PowerPoint's.

Procedure

Each teacher selected several literary topics from the course content which could be enhanced by PPT technology. With the help of a student, they collected graphics and provided brief text to accompany each picture. The student assembled each PPT presentation, and the appropriate teacher tweaked it.

The timing of the showing became an issue. In the fall 1997 study, we showed each PowerPoint presentation at the beginning of or during the class on the day that particular work was assigned. In our 1998 study, we showed the PPT presentation at the end of the class two days before their reading assignment was due. (For example, at the end of the Wollstonecraft lecture on Monday, I would reserve five minutes at the end for the PPT presentation on Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, which students would be reading and preparing to discuss on Wednesday.) These presentations were like a "scenes-from-the-next-episode" teaser on television and were meant to stimulate students' interest, sketch the cultural or authorial setting for the work, and prompt the students on major issues or themes. The non-PowerPoint classes had no graphic images to enhance their appetite for the literature, though the same information presented in PowerPoint was delivered orally to these students.

Introduction

Method: 1. Overview

2. Demographics

3. Content of Presentations

4. Data Collection, Assessment

Results

Discussion