The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2008: §3115 Home Papers/Indices prev (§3114) Next (§3134)

Sat, Nov 8, 11:30 - 11:55, Pueblo A Paper (refereed)

Recommended Citation: Mahar, S, U Yaylacicegi, and T N Janicki. Less is More When Developing PowerPoint Animations. In The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2008, v 25 (Phoenix): §3115. ISSN: 1542-7382. (A later version appears in Information Systems Education Journal 7(82). ISSN: 1545-679X.)

Recipient of Meritorious Paper Award

Less is More When Developing PowerPoint Animations

Refereed

10 pages

Steve Mahar    [a1] [a2]
University of North Carolina Wilmington    [u1] [u2]
Wilmington, North Carolina, USA    [c1] [c2]

Ulku Yaylacicegi    [a1] [a2]
University of North Carolina Wilmington    [u1] [u2]
Wilmington, North Carolina, USA    [c1] [c2]

Thomas N. Janicki    [a1] [a2]
University of North Carolina Wilmington    [u1] [u2]
Wilmington, North Carolina, USA    [c1] [c2]

Over the last decade PowerPoint has become the medium of choice for many instructors. The software provides animation options for the emphasis, entrance, or disappearance of text and figures. Many instructors use these options regularly with the intuition that such effects enhance student learning by allowing concepts to be introduced incrementally. This research explores the impact of custom animation in PowerPoint lectures and examines the idea that custom animation may in fact negatively impact student learning. To test this hypothesis two versions of a PowerPoint lecture were recorded in Camtasia Studio. The presentations differed only in the presence of animation to incrementally present information. To assess the impact of custom animation on student learning, students were shown either the animated or non-animated recordings and tested on the information presented. Computational results show a significant difference (p<0.001) between the means of overall student performance after viewing lectures with non-animated and animated PowerPoint slides suggesting that static slides allow students to retain more information than their dynamic counterparts.

Keywords: pedagogy, computer based training, instructional technology

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