Simple Project Canvas (or SPCA) is a set of 3 canvases that capture 3 crucial stages of any project. They are 01 Project Proposal, your business case on one page, 02 Project Charter, your charter on one page and 03 Project Evaluation, which describes lessons learned and the final result of a project.
More and more professors are using presentation technologies to bring visual aids into their classroom. More and more students expect a professor to distribute lecture slides to the class, either in hard copy or via the World Wide Web.
Professors deciding to use such slides in their teaching face many questions. What sorts of material should go on the slides? Are there limits to the amount of text one should put on a slide? How does one arrange the material for optimum viewing? Should the slides be distributed before class, after class, or not at all? If one decides to distribute them, should one do that in hard copy or via a course web site?
Project Canvas is a multimedia presentation tool, much like industry giant PowerPoint, but comes at the fraction of the cost. Create click-by-click adventure games, interactive tutorials.
Undoubtedly the most left-field candidate in our list, Powtoon is a hybrid tool which allows users to create animated presentations and videos. Instead of using expensive animation software or hiring an animator, Powtoon gives businesses all the tools needed to create the best animated presentation content.
An instructor’s use of visual aids in teaching, like other elements of the teaching practice, should be congruent with the instructor’s general approach to teaching. However, there are general rules and guidelines that the instructor can follow; we attempt to develop some of these below. On this page we present briefly stated rules and guidelines and also provide some links to other resources for those who would like more information.
General Guidelines for Slide Design
Font selection
Sans serif fonts are better than serif fonts. Serif fonts have small embellishments or lines at the base of each letter. These embellishments make it easier to follow a line of text on the printed page, but they are a distraction on a screen. So select a sans serif font (like Helvetica or Arial) instead of a serif font (like Times New Roman) for your PowerPoint slides.
Font size is crucial. You can find many rules for determining the proper font size for a particular presentation setting. A good general rule is to use at least 28 point for body text and 38 point for heading text.
Working with colors.
Remember that some (perhaps 5 – 10%?) of people are colorblind, so avoid using such color combinations as red text on a green background.
Standard advice is to use light text on a dark background in projected presentations, but pay attention to the strength of the image projected by the projector. One graphics person suggested yellow text on an indigo background. (There are some who recommend dark text on a light background if the room is large.) (Note: if you’re using transparencies and an overhead projector, don’t use dark backgrounds.)
Pay attention to how different colors go together, and remember that the shades you see on your monitor are not necessarily the ones you’ll see when projecting your presentation.
Text and white space.
Blank space on a slide is important – as a general rule, if you find yourself wanting to reduce the font size so that you can get more text on the screen, it’s probably a good idea to consider redesigning the slide so that you have less text on it.
The standard limit is either 7 x 7 (seven lines, no more than seven words each) or 5 x 5 (five lines, no more than five words each) on each slide.
Suggestions for Uses of Slides
If you’re using slides to illustrate and/or support a lecture ….
Remember that lecture notes on a slide play a different role in a lecture than do lecture notes that only the lecturer can see. If you try to make them play the same role, you’re likely to find students reading your slides instead of listening to you.
You can use slides in lecture to
List major points of your lecture. Several of the major points might stay on the screen as you develop each of them in turn, providing a way for those listening to the lecture to place each point in the larger context.
List important terms. Again, one slide with several terms might remain on the screen for some time, allowing you to refer to each of them as you introduce them in your lecture.
Illustrate with images. Sometimes a picture can make words worth much more than they are without the picture.
While instructors tend to think of lectures when they think of using visual aids in teaching, images can also be used to support classroom discussions .
Move participants through stages of understanding. Suppose you have a discussion in which students are asked to work together to analyze a dataset and reach a particular conclusion about the dataset. You could begin with a slide that presents the dataset in a disorganized way and ask the students to work together to identify patterns. As the discussion progressed to identify patterns that you would expect students to identify, you might then present a slide that showed these patterns. The discussion would proceed, supported at each stage by a slide that exhibited the patterns identified at that stage.
Take, organize, project real-time notes on discussion. Students often take notes during a discussion. Have students take turns serving as primary notetaker for the discussion, recording these notes in real time in a word processor projected onto the screen. Students develop the skill of recording and organizing information as a discussion is taking place. Moreover, these notes are in electronic form and therefore easily revised and reproduced. Notes taken in one class session can provide the basis for discussions later in the term.
Organize small-group work. If you have students working in small groups, you can put prompts for group work on slides that are projected as the students do their work. You could move students gently from one stage to the next by changing the prompts.
Resources
PowerPoint tutorial. There are many tutorials for PowerPoint. Here’s one developed at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
Active Learning with PowerPoint. An in-depth discussion of strategies for teaching with PowerPoint from the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Minnesota.
PowerPoint: Possibilities and Problems. Eugene V. Gallagher and Michael Reder of Connecticut College discuss how teachers can use PowerPoint thoughtfully and effectively .
Serif vs sans serif fonts. Here’s a discussion that’s more fully developed than the one above, but still very brief.
Choices about font size. If you’re not satisfied with the general guidelines given above regarding font size in PowerPoint presentations, than you might consider using the rule described on this page.
Noted information designer Edward Tufte offers his thoughts on the uses and misuses of Power Point (and other presentation software) in his The Cognitive Style of Power Point, an excerpt of which is available here. Also see Tufte’s article, PowerPoint is Evil from the September 2003 issue of Wired magazine.It should be noted that in his analysis of PowerPoint, Tufte often neglects to address the use of PowerPoint (and other slideware) to complement what a speaker says. He points out that a PowerPoint slideshow is limited in the ways that it can convey information as a stand-alone document, but he doesn’t address ways that a slideshow can enhance an in-person presentation.
For a different approach to using PowerPoint and other slideware to complement an in-person presentation, read Garr Reynold’s advice on designing slides. Reynolds is the author of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. See also Reynolds’ Presentation Zen blog for additional thoughts on presentations.
Canvas has this great wealth of tools that are just waiting to be deployed into your course. These tools are located in Canvas’ EduAppCenter. There are hundreds of apps in the EduAppCenter, so I thought I’d summarize just a few of the interesting ones available there, and some others that are available on the web. Many of these tools are free, others cost money or are subscription based for added features. Faculty and students alike are always asking for more collaborative tools, so I’ve mostly selected tools that have a collaborative slant.
How do I find the apps?
From the Settings area of your course site click on Settings, and then Apps, to find the EduAppCenter!
On to the apps!
1. Trello
Trello is a visual list tool that can be used for project management, collaboration, and much more! When Trello launched in 2011, the developers described it as “a web page where you make a bunch of lists. Each list contains cards. Each card is a thing that someone might want to work on” (Trello Launch blog post). On the back of each card, there’s room for including a description, conversations, file attachments, links, checklists, labels, and more. So why use this instead of just covering your whiteboard in post it notes? You can invite others to collaborate with you on your Trello board. So this tool ends up being useful for group projects, collaborations with your colleagues, etc.
One of its strong suits is providing templates that can help get you started (see links below). And the best part? It integrates into Canvas. Just go to your Canvas course, click on Settings > Apps and search the app center for Trello. Trello can be added into Assignments and Modules as an External Tool. Tip: You must first create a Public board in your Trello account (and grab the board ID) in order to add it to your Canvas site via the LTI.
TL;DR Trello is a list-making, task-delegating, collaboration tool. Cost: Free. Integrates into Canvas from App Center.
More About Trello
2. Padlet
Padlet is a similar tool to Trello, but simplified. It presents more like a Pinterest board, but without all the clutter and ads. Padlet’s website describes the tool as, “Somewhere between a doc and a full-fledged website builder, Padlet empowers everyone to make the content they want, whether it’s a quick bulletin board, a blog, or a portfolio” (What is Padlet?) The “free” version of Padlet is generously-featured enough to be used in a classroom or for group projects. You can collaborate with classmates or colleagues in Padlet simply by knowing their email address.
Compared to Trello, which is project-oriented, Padlet is set up more like social media- a user posts text, a link, or a file- and other users may comment on, favorite, rank, or even grade the posting (based on settings you select). A benefit of Padlet over Trello is that Padlet can be set up to be private. Trello can also be private, but not if you want to use the Canvas integration. Padlet offers mobile apps, and the option to share or embed a full board into Canvas. There is currently no LTI integration for Canvas, but Padlet provides simple instructions on how to embed into Canvas. There are also mobile apps and browser plug-ins available to make adding to your Padlet wall easier!
TL;DR Padlet is a media-rich bulletin-board, Pinterest-y, collaboration tool Cost: Free, decent feature set (with ability to upgrade) No direct integration, needs to be embedded into Canvas content page.
From edshelf.com, “Flipgrid is an active, social learning platform that engages learners through video-based discussion. The app extends the web-based environment and creates new possibilities for reflection, discussion, demonstration and collaboration.” Instructors create a “grid” with a topic, and create a short (2.5 min or less) video prompt to share with the class. Then the students respond with their own videos! Students may reply to other videos with their own videos (90 seconds or less).
Use cases for Flipgrid include Introduction or Ice Breaker videos for online classes, or weekly discussions around readings or current events. The downside of Flipgrid is that it is free to use, but you may only create 1 grid in a class (with unlimited Topics and responses) with a Free account- so if you teach more than one class at a time that you’d like to use Flipgrid in, you can purchase an upgrade if desired. Flipgrid integrates seamlessly into Canvas and has mobile apps as well. To try it in your Canvas course, just go to Settings > Apps in your course site, and search for Flipgrid.
TL;DR Flipgrid is a quick, fun, video recording collaboration tool Cost: Free, limited functionality (with ability to upgrade) Integrates into Canvas seamlessly
More about Flipgrid
Info about Flipgrid (official site) Flipgrid teaching tips and reviews Toki 1 18.
4. Piazza
Piazza is a free, easy to use Q&A discussion platform that can be used as an alternative to the native Canvas Discussions tool. Some of the differences between Piazza and Canvas’ Discussion board is that the discussions are more like a traditional online forum, and as a bonus- are filterable and searchable! Comments occur in real time, so students can leave their browser open and see answers appear on the screen. Students also have the option to remain anonymous to their peers, which relieves some of the intimidation of ‘speaking in front of the class.’ Instructors have the ability to endorse correct answers to help steer the class in the right direction.
Piazza integrates directly into Canvas and at WPI is already added to your course (it’s just hidden by default)! For WPI faculty, all you need to do is go to your course Settings area, then click on the Navigation tab at the top of the page. Locate the Piazza link under “Drag items here to hide them from students” and click and drag it to the top of the page to show it in your left-hand navigation. Don’t forget to click Save.
TL;DR Piazza is a Q&A style discussion board that allows anonymous posting Cost: Free Integrates into Canvas (WPI faculty, check your Settings > Navigation area to enable it)
From Feed the Me’s description in the EduAppCenter: “Feed The Me lets teachers aggregate a number of news feeds (Atom or RSS), filtered by tags, within the course environment. For example, this might be relevant blogs or news feeds from external sources, or perhaps a collection of student-produced blogs. Teachers can allow Students to add their own news feeds to the course feeds list, and can even submit a feed to fulfill an assignment requirement.”
To add this app, you’ll need a Twitter account in order to generate a key and secret. Make sure you save that information, because you’ll enter it to configure the app in Canvas. To configure, go to Settings > Apps and enter the key and secret when prompted. Don’t worry- you can enter a custom name for the app, you don’t need to see a confusing “Feed the Me” link in your class. I called mine something boring like “NewsFeeds.”
TL;DR Feed the Me is a newsfeed aggregator for your class. It’s open source, free to use, and integrates directly into Canvas. You can allow students to contribute their own feeds!
Perusall – a social, collaborative annotation tool integrated into Canvas Prulu – a Q & A discussion board integrated into Canvas Inoreader – another RSS feed widget with multiple viewing options
Got any cool free apps that you are using in your course from the EduAppCenter that you want to let us know about? Feel free to comment below or email us. Want to learn more about these? Reach out to the ATC-TTL team at [email protected].