In this blogpost, I reflect on the possibilities of including responsive buttons in my teaching materials. Using such buttons carries great potential of enhancing the interactions between instructors and learners and can initiate lasting learning experiences. I take inspiration from the YouTube clip “How to Create an Interactive Software Simulation in PowerPoint” and experimented a bit with the creation of responsive buttons in slideshows. I wish to give learners an opportunity to playfully engage with media theories. The presentation and discussion of influential media scholars is a standard element of introduction lectures in media studies. The slides that I show here could for instance be used in a course entitled “Introduction to Media Theory and Digital Cultures”. I envision uploading them to learning management systems such as Blackboard after a lecture on this topic. They can be used as additional learning materials and provide extra information about the content of a lecture through responsive buttons.
The test slides can be found here: https://1drv.ms/p/s!ApxyxYXyOrdfh8F2F7rOOIvEZFVcRQ
(I opened the link on my mobile phone and the buttons did not work. ☹ However, they seem to work on PCs… The OneDrive link above is publicly shared with “everyone”. If you are logged in with a Microsoft email account, you may need to switch to the view mode.)
I genuinely liked the content presented in module 2. Simulations are important vehicles for stimulating learning. It is great to see that there are ways of making PowerPoint presentations more engaging. Given that the internet provides so much quality information on media scholars, I can insert many useful links in a PowerPoint presentation. The responsive buttons enable a more interactive teaching style. I realized in many conversations with students that they make use of the internet while completing assignments and preparing tests. Therefore, I try to guide them to trustworthy information on the web. I also included a link to the ÕIS platform, where students and instructors can exchange files and messages. A button at the end of the slides can for instance remind them of the submission of the course work. To what extent the slides on the introduction to media studies meet the criteria for a playful simulation can only be decided by the readers of this blogpost.
Thank you – in addition to the course material in this module you opened up the possibilites of using responsive buttons in teaching materials. Great to see yor own examples and it actually inspired me to try smiliar techniques myself. I found your test slides to have a playful touch – and an easy way to give students additional content, and a chance to give feedback. We need, however, to remember the golden rule to not have too much information on one slide.
To put a button at the end of the slides for reminding the homework is a great idea! In this semester some of my student didn’t submit their work for evaluation just because they forgot to do it.