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Using PowerPoint in Online Courses
Using PowerPoint in Online Courses
This page presents an overview of using PowerPoint in online courses.
II. Native PowerPoint (.ppt files)
Probably the easiest way place a PowerPoint presentation into an online course is to simply upload the native PowerPoint presentation; i.e., the version used when giving a lecture (the .ppt file). The main advantage of this approach is that it requires no extra conversion step; the .ppt file is simply uploaded. Another advantage is that your students will be able to easily access all the slides and print out the presentation in any format they want. This means less work for you in creating alternate versions (more on this later).
This sounds great, but there are a number of disadvantages to placing native PowerPoint presentations into online courses:
- To view the native PowerPoint file, your students will need to have PowerPoint installed on their computers (or the free PowerPoint for Windows viewer that Microsoft provides). If your students do not have PowerPoint, they will not able to view your presentation.
- Let's say that your students have PowerPoint. Students who use Internet Explorer as their web browser will be able to click on the link for your presentation and have it seamlessly loaded directly into their browsers. However, students using Netscape as their browser will not experience anything that can be described as seamless. When Netscape users click on a link representing a native PowerPoint file, they will get an alert saying that Netscape does not know what this file is. The only real option is to save the file. These users will then need to open the .ppt file in PowerPoint. Why is this? The Netscape browser is not a Microsoft product. Internet Explorer and PowerPoint work well together because they are Microsoft products. So by placing the native PowerPoint presentation into your online course, you will be creating a situation where one group of students (Internet Explorer users) experiences one thing, while another group (Netscape users) experiences something else. Creating different user experiences in web-based courses is definitely something to be avoided. It can lead to confusion, and will require you to have to provide your students with instructions.
- Your native PowerPoint presentation file might be very large. Students who connect to the Internet on dial-up connections may have to wait a long time for it to download. If you do place your native PowerPoint presentations online, try to make sure that the file size is kept as small as possible. It might even be a good idea to break up a large presentation into smaller ones.
- Placing the native .ppt file into your online course essentially gives the entire presentation away to your students. They will have the actual presentation and can do what they want with it. There have been reports of faculty seeing slides from their PowerPoint presentations used by others.
Try it out for yourself. The following link will bring up a native PowerPoint presentation. Click on the link to see how your web browser on your computer responds. You may also want to try accessing the link using different web browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape).
For a variety of reasons (save time, not concerned about sharing .ppt files), faculty may decide to use their native PowerPoint presentations in their online courses. But it is important to be aware of the potential pitfalls.
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Sample PowerPoint presentation (.ppt file)
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III. Web Pages (HTML)
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