Adding PowerPoint Using the Lesson Activity
- Luc Richard
While all 3 options presented earlier have their Pros and Cons, none of them allow you to track that a user views the presentation in its entirety. If you want to track that users view the presentation in its entirety, the recommendation is to create a lesson in the learning environment using the “Lesson” activity.
Step-by-step Guide
Using Microsoft PowerPoint, open the file
Click on File > Save As
Select the “JPEG File Interchange Format (*.jpg)” option for the file type
Click on the “Save” button
When prompted “Which slides do you want to export”, select “All Slides”
The steps above will create a series of images in JPEG format. They will be labeled “Slide 1”, “Slide 2” and so on. You will need to use those in step #15 below.
In the learning environment, go to the course in question
Turn editing on
Click on “Add an activity or resource”
Select the “Lesson” activity
Give the activity a name. Generally speaking, the name should match the title of the presentation.
Set the other settings as per your preferences.
Click on “Save and display”
Click on “Add a content page”
Give the content page a name. Generally speaking, the name should match the title of the slide you will be importing.
Drag and drop the JPG titled “Slide 1” (generated in step #5 above) to the “Page contents” text area.
In the “Content 1” section of the same web page (below the text area), enter “Next” for the description and select “Next page” for the jump field
This steps create a navigation for the lesson, allowing the user to jump the next slide. You may want to create other navigation buttons, like “Previous”, “First” or “Last”.
Click on “Save page”
This will have created a page in your lesson.
In the “Actions” column next to the page you just created, select “Add a content page”
Repeat steps 14 to 18 above until you have imported all of your images in JPEG format
The advantage of the Lesson activity is that you can track that the user views all slides. You can also embed questions within the lesson to test the user’s knowledge as they go through the presentation. To accomplish this, make sure that you go back to the lessons settings (in the “Administration” block, go to “Lesson administration” > “Settings”) and set the “Activity completion criteria correctly. This may include enabling the criteria “Student must reach the end of lesson page to complete this activity” or even “Student must do this activity at least for __ minutes”.
Pros:
Best user experience
You can record audio for each slide and embed questions
You can track that the user view the presentation in its entirety and verify their knowledge by embedding questions.
Cons:
Requires more time on the part of the instructor to create
Results in large files, particularly if using audio