My Prezi Is Better Than Your PowerPoint!

Prezi - and other 'infinite' non-linear digital presentation tools (e.g. SpicyNodes) -  are alternatives to linear (aka boring) digital presentation tools such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides. Chou et al. (2015) went out to test the effects of different digital presentation tools on student learning and here is the key sentence (page 81):

However, compared to PowerPoint instruction, innovative features such as nonlinear presentation emphasized in Prezi showed no significant learning advantages.

My personal experience with Prezi is very limited - but those I have seen at workshops and conferences followed a more-or-less simple linear sequence and so I fail to see the advantage of one vs. the other.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/prezi-vs-powerpoint-establishing-objectives-tony-lazzari

What Do You Think About Online Education?

And - how does that compare to what the/your administration thinks?

For answers, consider the 2014 Survey of Online Learning Grade Level: Tracking Online Education in the United States, 2014 or 3 Things Academic Leaders Believe About Online Education on Wired Campus (the 71 comments are quite interesting!).

Here's the summary - academic leaders (tend to) think that:

1. online education is critical for the success of the institution.
2. hybrid courses are at least as good as f-2-f courses.
3. the majority of their faculty don't think online courses are 'legit'.

Personally I always wondered how you can conduct 'classroom' observations needed for the tenure/promotion process in an online course.

It will be interesting to read the 2015 survey.

Knowing vs. Using

This is interesting: faculty often know about new and 'high-tech' teaching methods and technologies, but often choose not to use them in their classrooms.

You can read more about this at Professors Know About High-Tech Teaching Methods, but Few Use Them on Wired Campus (including an interesting interactive table with data download option). The 157 comments are also quite interesting!

Full survey: U.S. Postsecondary Faculty in 2015: Diversity in People, Goals, and Methods, but Focused On Students by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation