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=** Needs Assessment ** =

=**Introduction** = ===** Microsoft Office PowerPoint lectures are a ubiquitous medium for delivering instructional materials to students at Kent State University. As university courses and instructional materials are increasingly being delivered online, instructors have identified a need to create narrated PowerPoint presentations in order to more effectively communicate information to online students. Narrated PowerPoint presentations create a more stimulating and engaging online learning experience equivalent to a face-to-face lecture. They also provide online students with more meaningful instructional materials by presenting information in dual modality with far greater detail than can be contained in individual slides within a presentation. Currently, the university provides several technologies for instructors to create narrated PowerPoint presentations, one of which is Camtasia Studio screen capture software. ** ===

=**Desired Situation** = The desired situation is that any instructor at Kent State University that wants or needs to create course materials for online delivery and chooses to use university supported technology has access to instructional materials that enable them to learn how to use the supported technology. Specifically, instructors who need to create narrated PowerPoint presentations and choose to use university supported Camtasia Studio are provided with instruction that will teach them how to record audio narration over a PowerPoint presentation. Instructors' ability to successfully create narrated PowerPoint presentations will not only help them fulfill their responsibilities for creating course content, but also improve the quality of instruction delivered to online students. Upon completing this instructional unit instructors will be able to:
 * Set up and test a microphone for recording
 * Record a narrated PowerPoint presentation
 * Save to file format ready for online delivery

=**Current Situation** = Results of the university's efforts to support instructors' use of the Camtasia screen casting software to create narrated PowerPoint presentations has been mixed. Instructors able to take advantage of personal instruction with staff from the Educational Technology department have demonstrated the greatest success in creating PowerPoint presentations using Camtasia Studio PowerPoint add-in. In large part their success is due to not only to instruction related to how to use the Camtasia PowerPoint add-in to record, but also how to set-up and test their microphone, and save their file in a format ready for online delivery. However many instructors are limited by schedule or distance and not able to take advantage of personal instruction from an Educational Technologist. As a result, the success ratio of instructors who have not received detailed instructions in the entire process from setting up their microphone to saving the file has been demonstrably less than their peers. The Educational Technology department has identified the following types of recurring problems in the development and quality of narrated PowerPoint presentation course materials:
 * Presentation is recorded without audio
 * Audio volume is not properly set - too soft or too loud
 * File is saved in a format incompatible with online delivery

=**Gap Analysis** = There is currently a performance gap between two groups of instructors using the same university supported software to create narrated PowerPoint presentations. As a result of this gap, instructors who lack access to detailed instructions frequently experience problems that prevent the successfully completion and preparation of necessary course materials. Detailed instructional materials would allow those instructors unable to receive personal instruction to successfully create quality narrated PowerPoint presentations ready for online delivery.

=**Goal of Instruction** = Instructor will demonstrate the ability to record a narrated Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation using Camtasia Studio 7 PowerPoint Add-in by 1) setting up and testing a microphone to record audio 2) recording a narrated PowerPoint presentation reading a sample printed script aloud into a microphone 3) saving a recorded PowerPoint presentation to a video file format ready for online delivery.

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