Editor's Note: This Pointer Article has been trimmed down to reflect changes
in availability and uses since the article first appeared. Only parts dealing
with design principles and the like are still included.
Introduction
In many traditional college courses, the lecture is
the centerpiece of the instructional process. One of the challenges facing
new online instructors, then, is how to convert lecture material to a
format that will be at least as captivating as live, in-class delivery.
Certainly most experts today recommend minimizing the role of the lecture,
even in the traditional classroom, and instead replacing or supplementing
it with activities that actively engage students with the course content
and with each other. While this is generally sound advice, there are
nevertheless times when a formal lecture is still the most efficient
and effective method of communicating new information and ideas to students,
whether online or in the classroom. Fortunately, there are tools available
that make creating dynamic online lectures a relatively easy and painless
process. One such tool is RealPresenter®, a product developed and
distributed by RealNetworks, Incorporated.
What is RealPresenter?
RealPresenter is software (available in free and retail
versions) available from RealNetworks.com (makers
of RealAudio player) that creates multimedia presentations consisting
of Microsoft® PowerPoint® slides with an audio narration and
optional video track. The resulting output can then be played back with
the RealPlayer® application, a free media player from RealNetworks.
RealPresenter converts each PowerPoint slides to a JPEG image, which
is displayed within main region of the RealPlayer as the narration for
that slide is playing. A table of contents with the title of each slide
is listed in the left portion of the window. Clicking a slide title takes
the user directly to that slide and accompanying audio voiceover. If
the presentation also includes a video track, it is displayed in the
upper left region of the RealPlayer window. To see an example of RealPresenter
at work, point your browser or the RealPlayer application at Michael
Lindeman's MVCR lecture "The
Analysis Phase of the Instructional Design Process," which is available
at the following URL:
http://128.174.75.185:8080/RAMGEN/mvcr/id/
module3lecture/trainer.smi [no longer available Jan. 2002]
Lectures prepared with RealPresenter can be delivered
in real-time, meaning your students can listen and watch while you are
lecturing, or they can be stored on a server for playback at the convenience
of each class member. Both real-time and stored presentations are delivered
using a technology called streaming
media. Streaming technology allows large audio and video files to
be played as soon as a small amount of the file has been buffered (usually
within a few seconds) on the user's desktop, eliminating the need to
download the entire file before playing it.
If, after reading the description and viewing the example
referenced above, you think RealPresenter might have a role to play in
your online or Web-enhanced class, read on and you'll learn how to get
started with this powerful, yet easy-to-use product.
Presentation Tips:
The RealPresenter User's Guide devotes an entire chapter
to very helpful Tips and Tricks. Here are a few additional tips, based
on the experience of our staff.
- Use a good quality microphone to record the presentation.
- Keep your lectures brief-20-25 minutes at most. While the traditional
lecture lasts 50 minutes or more, research has shown that the average
adult attention span is 15-20 minutes.
- Remember to accommodate hearing and sight-impaired students. In addition
to posting the RealPresenter version of the presentation, provide a text
transcription of the audio narration and the slides. If you created a
script for your presentation, that can also serve as the transcription.
You may also want to consider posting a copy of your slides in PowerPoint
or Adobe Portable Document format.
- Give each slide a unique descriptive title in PowerPoint. The slide
titles will be hyperlinked to the sound track for that slide in the RealPresenter
table of contents.
