Presentation given at USAB 2008, Fourth International Symposium on Usability and HCI for Education and Work, Graz, Austria, November 2008 ABSTRACT: PowerPoint is one of the most frequently used tools to present multimedia for educational purposes. Nevertheless, little is known about the users' needs when using PowerPoint during lecturing. Our study focused on the presenter's needs in this context of use. We interviewed nine university lecturers from the computer science department by means of a questionnaire. The results show that users require features that are not yet realised with PowerPoint. For example, the control and use of other media should be adequately integrated. Or the navigation within the slide collection should be improved to better meet the users' needs. Based on our findings, we outline required system features and suggest solutions in form of a prototype.

1. PowerPoint Multimedia Presentations
in Computer Science Education
What Do Users Need?
Elke I. Reuss, Beat Signer and Moira C. Norrie
http://www.beatsigner.com
Institute for Information Systems, ETH Zurich
8092 Zurich, Switzerland
USAB 2008, November 21

2. Motivation
 PowerPoint is one of the most commonly used
presentation tools
 Little is known about user needs for delivering
lectures with PowerPoint
 Our goal: investigate these user needs and
develop an enhanced PowerPoint based
presentation tool
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

3. Study Design
 9 computer science faculty members, age 25-62
 ETH Zurich and University of Zurich
 Method
 structured interviews (on average 37 minutes)
 collected a sample presentation from each participant
 Questions
 status quo of PowerPoint in lectures
 does PowerPoint satisfy the user needs or what
additional functionality is desired
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

4. Results
Setup
 Hardware
 laptop (n=8) and tablet PC (n=1)
 pointing device: laser pointer (n=7) or stick (n=1)
 remote control (n=6)
 Software
 PowerPoint 2007 (n=4), PowerPoint 2004 (n=1) and
PowerPoint 2003 (n=4)
 All participants use PowerPoint since more
than 7 years
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

5. Results
Content and Organisation
100
90
 all participants sort the
80 slides in the order they
70
intend to present them
60
Measure
50  most participants (n=8)
40
30
access the slides in a
20 linear order
10
0
min
SL
ID max mean
SL
ID
SL
ID
_ _ _
MIN AX AN
M ME
number of slides
Trial
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

6. Results
Content and Organisation …
%
100
90
 most participants (n=8)
80 use extra slides
70
 filed at the end (n=6)
60
Measure
50
 filed as hidden slide (n=2)
40  stored in separate file (n=2)
30
20
10
0
text
TEXT formulas GRAPH
FORM graphics
Trial
type of content
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

7. Results
Presenting Information
 All participants like to move around during a
presentation
 Most participants use additional types of media
 black-/whiteboard (n=9)
 overhead slides (n=7)
 videos (n=6)
 software/application demos (n=2)
 flipcharts (n=1)
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

8. Implications
Feature Description
F01 Highlight and annotate slide content
F02 Use blank "sheets"
F03 Use video controls
F04 Use system mobile
F05 Orientate efficiently within slide collection
F06 See content of current and nearby slides
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

9. PaperPoint
 Interactive PowerPoint
paper handouts
 Mobile presentation
tool (F04)
 Based on
 Anoto's Digital Pen and
Paper technology
 iServer/iPaper platform
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

10. Digital Pen and Paper
 Pattern license and
camera technology
offered by Anoto
 virtual paper space of
60 million km2
 Pen manufacturers
 Nokia
 Maxell
 Adapx
 Livescribe
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

11. PaperPoint Architecture
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

12. Authoring of Handout Templates
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

13. PaperPoint Prototype (F05 and F06)
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

14. Structure (F05)
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

15. Navigational and Video Controls (F03)
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

16. Pointer and Annotation Controls (F1)
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

17. Interactive Note Sheets (F02)
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

18. Other PaperPoint Features
 Support for multiple pens
 collaborative presentations
 brainstorming sessions
 Recording and replay of entire presentations
 Digital and physical customisation of PaperPoint
handout layout
 General PaperPoint interface
 integration of other presentation tools (e.g. Keynote)
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

19. Conclusions
 Investigation of user needs for "PowerPoint
lecturing"
 features F01-F06
 Interactive paper-based PaperPoint prototype
(addressing F01-F06)
 Future work: evaluation of PaperPoint prototype
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

20. Further Information
 Interactive Paper and Augmented Reality
 http://wise.vub.ac.be/content/interactive-paper-and-
augmented-reality
 Beat Signer and Moira C. Norrie, PaperPoint: A Paper-
Based Presentation and Interactive Paper Prototyping
Tool, Proceedings of TEI 2007, Baton Rouge, USA,
February 2007
 Beat Signer, Fundamental Concepts for Interactive
Paper and Cross-Media Information Spaces, ISBN 978-
3-8370-2713-6, May 2008
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be

21. Further Information …
 Elke I. Reuss, Beat Signer and Moira C. Norrie,
PowerPoint Multimedia Presentations in Computer
Science Education: What Do Users Need?, Proceedings
of USAB 2008, 4th Symposium on Usability & HCI for
Education and Work, Graz, Austria, November 2008
USAB 2008, November 21 Beat Signer, bsigner@vub.ac.be