A white background with black bullet points or musical transitions between colorful slides? CU Boulder Department of Communication Professor Matt Koschmann achieves a delicate balance between both styles of PowerPoint presentations. Students nominated Koschmann for the Fall 2013 ASSETT Outstanding Teaching with Technology Award for his teaching of Communication 4600 Organizational Communication. In particular, they acclaimed the seamlessness of his PowerPoint presentations. One student wrote: "[The] best integration of slides in class I’ve ever [seen] ... [Koschmann] ... Uses PowerPoint slides better than any teacher, really strikes the perfect balance between how much information he puts on the slides and how much information he puts into the lecture."
Koschmann spoke about his process of creating PowerPoint presentations for classes. Koschmann explained that he makes every decision about his PowerPoints with intention to effectively complement his lectures. Koschmann carefully plans the progression of text and associated animations to highlight concepts explained through lecture. Koschmann says that animations in a presentation should be, "... Attractive - not distracting. The animation should help the progression of ideas. It's more dynamic than staring at a list on the screen. A visual representation ..." He also posts his slides to D2L before class.
The Outstanding Teaching with Technology Award nomination is not Koschmann's first recognition from ASSETT. In 2010, he received an ASSETT Development Award that he used to create educational animation videos through CommProf Productions. Koschmann continues to create animations for his teaching through Videoscribe software.
Finally, Koschmann says:
I enjoy the classroom environment ... Where you can talk through ideas and ask questions. I'm always looking for things that solve a problem ... [and] ... Ways to enhance the learning environment ... Students have a higher standard and expectation now.
