Chapter 13 – Moving away from the traditional PowerPoint to an interactive docum
Chapter 13 – Moving away from the traditional PowerPoint to an interactive documentary-style session
Dr Andrew Watson
Introduction
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic forced teaching to temporarily move away from the traditional face-to-face format. This resulted in practical difficulties, but also presented opportunities to develop new styles and embrace advances in technology. Practical STEM subjects were particularly hard-hit (Bacon & Peacock, 2021) with many subject areas relying heavily on field visits and laboratory sessions.
The limitation of narrated PowerPoint lectures
The suddenness of the switch to online pre-recorded lectures meant that traditional PowerPoint sessions which made up the core of teaching were often reused, but with a voice narration. It became apparent from interactions with students that they missed three main aspects of teaching:
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Face-to-face contact
In a face-to face lecture, it is the presenter who brings the subject to life through the use of positive body language and gestures to emphasise key points and present enthusiasm (Bambaeeroo & Shockrpour, 2017). Being faced with a blank slide with a series of bullet points or images meant that students would regularly state that attention spans and enthusiasm levels had fallen.
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Interaction within sessions
A key part of any face-to-face session is interaction, asking students their ideas, opinions and questioning them on the subject area. These aid learning through improved recall, understanding and analysis, but are also key in breaking up sessions through re-engagement (Almedia, 2012).
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Lack of field visits
The use of regular field visits throughout the year formed the backbone of teaching. Removing these (during lockdown) was particularly detrimental to students who lacked a practical background in this area. The use of images within presentations aided this to some extent but was not a sufficient substitute.
The development of an interactive documentary style session
Throughout the 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years, it was decided to completely redesign all pre-recorded lectures to address these three issues. A range of ideas were formed, tested, and revised based on discussions with students, these eventually evolved into an interactive documentary style session. This system could be adapted to benefit many other practical science subjects (e.g., biology, geography etc.).
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Face to face contact
The presenter was videoed in front of a white screen and would speak into the camera as if speaking directly to the viewer. This helped project a greater level of enthusiasm into sessions through body language and created a style similar to that of a face-to-face lecture. This method also provided the ability to show examples/props (e.g., demonstrating safety equipment or field samples) as is often done in live sessions (see figure 1). Hand gestures could then be used to help explain or gesture towards key points. Feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive towards thi