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Monday 2 June 2008, 6:50 AM
Quick Tips to Enhance Your Presentation in PowerPoint 2007
After your meticulously constructed the contents of next-day presentation, enrichment is great for your confidence. Applying some quick enhancements to your presentation is really easy, because you’ll find PowerPoint 2007 has made them ready for you.
1. Themes offer you more thoughts
Access the Design tab of the Ribbon in PowerPoint 2007, the Themes gallery provides several themes here with thumbnail previews, and you can just hove your mouse cursor over and get live preview with new theme in current presentation.
Furthermore, the built-in theme colors are very friendly feature to help you make professional design. Fonts, Effects are also already selected by designers, and what you need is just a few clicks.
2. Quick Styles is what you want
In Drawing section of Home tab, you can decorate the selected contents with this fascinating idea: just live preview and apply preset style in mouse hover and clicks. That’s why it called “Quick”.
Like theme feature, the preset style or layout is well designed. Everyone can easily access it and make a professional-like presentation.
3. Use SmartArt in smart
SmartArt is so cool that everyone will like it. Actually it just provides the quick way to make designer-quality graphics from preset templates, as better graphics can essential promote your presentation.
You may create one from SmartArt icon of Insert tab, and simply all the boring listing, process, cycle, relationship contents into a smart and bright view. That’s SmartArt simply did for you.
William Peterson
Tuesday 13 May 2008, 3:43 AM
Building E-Assessment: The Practical Guide to Online Quizzes in Moodle
Feedback on performance is a critical part of a learning environment and assessment is one of the most important activities in education. It seems like lately a lot of educators have been trying to make quizzes in Moodle, as a part of their online learning courses for effective practices.
For those of you that don't know Moodle, it is the best one of free, open source course management system (CMS) designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. For more information, please visit http://www.moodle.org.
Actually we have at least two preferred methods to create a quiz in Moodle. The option depends on what you want the quiz to be in Moodle.
Create Simple Quizzes with Quiz Module in Moodle
Fortunately, Moodle already has a Quiz module allowing the instructors to design and set quizzes consisting of a large variety of Question types in the easiest way. With this module, creating a new quiz is just a two-step process.
Step 1: Create the quiz activity and set options to interact with the quiz.
- Ensure your role in Moodle is switched to Course creator, Teacher or other editing roles;
- Within the course you enrolled, click "Turn editing on" on the Administration panel;
- On the exact week in outline, click "Add an activity", and select "Quiz" in the drop-down list;
- Specify the Quiz options such as Name, Timing, Display & Attempts, and save.
Step 2: Edit the quiz and add specified questions from various question types.
- In the created quiz, click "Edit" on the top navigation bar to edit the quiz detail;
- Switch to the "Questions" section on second-level navigation;
- In the "Question Bank", go to "Create new question", and choose the types you like.
As the easiest way to create quizzes in Moodle quickly, Quiz module offers fundamental and flexible features to meet the practical requirements. Therefore, it may not support some advanced applications such as importing audio, customizing background or collecting results.
Make Rich-Media Quizzes with SCORM/AICC Module in Moodle
Besides the simple quizzes making, some instructors may need to build the assessments with multimedia, as well as results tracking and reporting. Upon these requirements, Flash quiz is the perfect solution with multimedia authoring. With SCORM/AICC module in Moodle which allows you to upload any standard SCORM package, you can easily create and incorporate a SCROM compliant Flash quiz in your course.
Step 1: Make Flash-based quizzes with SCORM compliance.
- Make Flash quiz with some assessment tool, such as Wondershare QuizCreator;
- Create questions in different question type, like true or false, multiple choices, short essay, click map, matching and sequence;
- Use Excel template in QuizCreator to deign a Excel-based quiz and then import;
- Publish the quiz for LMS as specified SCORM compliant package.
Step 2: Add Flash quiz as SCORM compliant content into the course.
- Ensure your role in Moodle is switched to Course creator, Teacher or other editing roles;
- Within the course you enrolled, click "Turn editing on" on the Administration panel;
- On the exact week in outline, click "Add an activity", and select "SCORM/AICC" in the drop-down list;
- Specify the settings such as Name, and choose the SCORM compliant package to upload, then save the course.
Finally, as you can see in the course contents as Student role, and the results report as Teacher role, the SCROM compliant Flash quiz can work well with and report results to Moodle. It greatly enhances the quiz with rich media and interactivity to help the learning process.
NOTES: Moodle can be a very complicated system to install, like many other Open Source applications, if you are not an advanced computer user. I would recommend getting the help of an advanced user before attempting to install and user Moodle.
For more reference information on this subject please visit the following sites:
Quiz Module in Moodle
SCORM/AICC Module in Moodle
Create a SCORM Compliant Quiz
Friday 25 April 2008, 7:59 AM
Ideal Mathematics Test Practices: Making Online Quizzes with Math Symbols
In the Internet times, most learners will prefer online courses and practices to expand their mathematics knowledge, so math symbols and equations in online quizzes would be an essential part for educators.
Undoubtedly, everyone needs mathematical knowledge to strive forward in the 21st century. As a central part of contemporary education and fundamental of other science subjects, certainly mathematics is abstract, and the mathematical courses are really difficult to learn. Most math or science instructor may believe that, better mathematical ability needs more parctices and assessments.
To prepare a mathematics test, a lot of practices are necessary for learners. Math instructors could design various questions for students to exercise before the formal test. In the era of Internet times, the way of online quizzes is supposed to be more acceptable by most learners. Certainly instructional designers can try a lot of online quiz makers, such as Discovery Education (http://school.discoveryeducation.com/), but for mathematics test, the adding of math symbols could be a really serious problem. Especially, most mathematical equations in algebra or geometry need special symbols to complete. How can a math or science instructor achieve this?
The difficulty associated with including symbols and equations in online quizzes for mathematics test or preparation practice might be the barrier of better online math teaching and learning. The primary problem is that standard Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Netscape, are incapable of displaying common math symbols.
To deal with this limitation simply, instructors resort to turning symbols and equations into image files (e.g., gif) which can then be displayed by browsers. In Windows, go to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Character Map to insert special math symbols. Then, make use of free built-in Paint in Windows Accessories to convert the mathematics equations with special symbols to images. About Paint program, just refer to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_(software)
A second approach is to create symbols using a XML-based language called MathML (Mathematical Markup Language), which then requires a MathML "plug-in" to be installed to a browser to display the symbol. MathML is a low-level specification for describing mathematics as a basis for machine to machine communication by the W3C Math working group. It provides a much needed foundation for the inclusion of mathematical expressions in Web pages. Get more information about MathML at
http://www.w3.org/Math/
The better approach so far is made possible through Flash-based QuizCreator with equation editor feature, which creates equations in Flash mathematics test, as Flash could be easily embedded in Web pages. Certainly it doesn't require the users to manually install a plug-in to the browser. In addition, it runs alongside the learning management system (such as Moodle, BlackBoard, WebCT) so that the mathematics test preparation practices with math symbols by instructors can be better accessed as course content and assessments. Try Wondershare QuizCreator with math symbols supported from:
http://www.sameshow.com/quiz-creator.html
It's worth trying more solutions of online quizzes for mathematics test to deploy appropriate tools. However, most instructors would favor the Flash way, as the original mathematics test with math symbols can be easily edited in equation editor in the future.
William Peterson
Presentation Veteran
Thursday 3 April 2008, 9:48 AM
Tech Up Your Sales Presentation With New Blood
A successful presentation never makes anyone sleepy, and the ending applause isn't the ringing to wake up. Maybe every presenter knows the rule, but not eveyone knows the solution.
Certainly the goal of a sales presentation is to deliver a clear, concise and consistent message to your prospects about your products and your brand, as well as why you're better than the competition. Doing that and keeping your audience's attention for longer than 30 minutes is the real chanllenge. Today's spoiled, information-overloaded prospects demand a richer presentation experience.
The problem with traditional presentation tools is that they use a lot of static text that makes them too long, too common and just plain boring. PowerPoint changed that for a while, but with technology changing so quickly, some claim that even this beloved presentation tool is too old to adapt to the new world. But sales professionals and executives must weigh the benefits of a new presentation tool against the potential for more sales, and it might not be worth taking on the added effort and expense.
Presentation Tools in New Blood
Nevertheless, there are a lot of new tools that can enhance your presentation. Hitachi StarBoard Software, for example, now offers a line of interactive whiteboards, panels and portable tablets that offers dynamic and engaging ways to grab and hold the attention of even the most technology-savvy meeting attendee.
Not exactly multimedia, some Java-enabled technologies can be used within a number of platforms, from PDFs to Web sites to PowerPoint presentations. Actually, Flash is the most powerful software tool today to leverage technology in sales presentations, and Flash interactive sales tools can serve multiple purposes. You can send them in advance of a meeting to prime your prospects and pique their interest, or you can leave them behind after the meeting to help your contact sell your product and service internally. Interactive tools that involve your viewers make them want to talk about you and show your presentation to key decision-makers in their organization.
Presentations developed in Flash now have better integration of video, back-end systems and other Web-based technologies. One benefit of this greater integration is the ability to incorporate dynamic information and develop modular presentations with a focus on user experience and usability. These changes allow for more interactivity, flexibility in customization and a richer experience for the prospect.
The Value of Business Presentations
Although creating these presentations can be costly and complex, these presentations can be substantial enough to deliver a better message for your business, and attract prospects around the globe through WEbinars, for example.
By effectively utilizing new Web and software technologies in every aspect of your sales presentation, you will not only overcome the challenges presented by modern demands, but also reap other advantages, such as being able to track your prospects' habits and make up successful sales initiatives based on the data collected online. Wondershare software ever offers a presentation-based e-learning solution, which could be a related authoring tools to deploy business presentation system.
Beyond the rising expectations, more good presentations come on these greatest tools. Actually, presenters gain more from the use of tools, and making good use of tools: for instant, SmartArt in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 is already a nice development to enrich your sales reps.
William Peterson
Presentation Veteran
Sunday 23 March 2008, 4:34 AM
For Solutions from iSpring: Test Drive On PowerPoint to Flash Industry
The developers from Russia made a great success on PowerPoint to Flash conversion technologies called FlashSpring in recent years, which seems really rock solid on the conversion quality. Days ago, they leveled up the simple but powerful converter technology to a series of exciting solutions on PowerPoint to Flash, iSpring. And I had a great test drive of iSpring Pro from its Giveaway of the Day promotion.
I don't care about the such features like "Insert Flash" or "Resources", because its Flash presentation competitor in leading role Articulate Presenter already has better and utility ones. The program instability and output quality is gorgeous on iSpring, also the great compression to output originals PowerPoint to a 10% compaaible file size of Flash. However, it has some backs, such as PowerPoint 2007 support, which looks like what it said in promotion: just "works fine". My PowerPoint 2007 crashed many times, and most animations on SmartArt are not applicable in output. But do you know, iSpring has a iSpring Free available beside its US$199 Pro.
By the way, the iSpring menu buttons were non-intrusive making working with PowerPoint simple. The cool ribbon and tech for PowerPoint 2007 got another full-featured competitor PPT2Flash Professional, who may has a little better support on PowerPoint 2007, at least the instability as I know. If you need more on this point, just give more than a try.
William Peterson
Presentation Veteran
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