The following is a guest post by Ross Schumacher, MS1, IUSM Indianapolis Campus, rschumac@iupui.edu
Hello, I’m Ross Schumacher, the Vice-President of the 2017 class and a member of the Student Curriculum Liaison Committee (SCLC) here in Indianapolis. The following points were gleaned from student responses to an SCLC survey of 1st year students in Indianapolis. Here are two simple tips that students are reporting help make great lectures stand out from their peers:
- Point with the computer mouse arrow, not with a laser pointer.
Many students re-watch lecture recordings when studying. While the lecture recording software is both versatile and powerful, it only records a small video of the actual lecturer and the lecturer’s computer screen. Hence, the recording will not show what the lecturer is pointing at with a laser pointer or their finger. But, if lecturers will hover over whatever they are pointing to with the mouse pointer on their own computer screen, this will then be picked up by the recording software and will show up when the lecture is re-watched.
- Post Lectures As Both PDF and PowerPoint
Most professors use PowerPoint to make their lectures, and many students use mobile tablets to view lecture notes. However, some very popular tablets (namely iPads) CANNOT natively view PowerPoint files. EVEN WORSE, some free “PowerPoint Viewing” apps can unknowingly CORRUPT downloaded PowerPoints and make words, pictures, and sometimes even whole slides disappear. Saving a PowerPoint file as a PDF is easily done on most devices by clicking “Save as” then selecting “PDF.”
Ross Schumacher
MS1, IUSM Indianapolis Campus
rschumac@iupui.edu