Week 1 Learning Log Blog 

This week was focused on APA formatting, Powerpoints and tools related to it, the course syllabus, and provided us with several videos and supplemental resources for use. It included design considerations for Powerpoints including goals, outlines, and visuals that should be prioritized when creating a Powerpoint. The outline also considered the structure of what to include or do away with/what is important. The Powerpoint stated important elements to include in a PowerPoint presentation include a clear and concise title slide, an outline of the presentation structure, engaging visuals such as images or graphics, concise bullet points, and a summary or conclusion slide to reinforce key takeaways. 

Moving on from Powerpoints, we also learned about recording for video lectures, and tips such as video quality, audio quality, “studio”, and delivery. Ironically, the video from Grumo is a video lecture on how to give video lectures. The next topic from our supplementary resources was nervousness, which is an important consideration when doing anything that will be presented to someone else, particularly on camera or even in a live setting with an audience. Even though there were some subjective statements from Ashlee Espinosa, like her consideration that videos are the “best” way to communicate with students, the video is still well-done and highlights important considerations of how to interact via video. Having different ways students can learn even if they are similar is beneficial to different students’ learning styles, because one student may retain information better in writing than video. Moving on, she discusses consistency in development of timelines for the selected video to film and creating a script to follow while conducting your video lecture. Another important consideration is the timer which ensures your video is not too long. The video Ashlee Espinosa provides is very helpful for tips on how to mitigate nervousness when recording video lectures while including the consideration that it may be different, potentially more difficult, for some people than others.  

These concepts are important because they will eventually tie into our papers and delivery of our 5-page papers, 15-minute presentation on the topics, and our 5 questions quizzes.