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Better Than Bullet Points: Creating Engaging e-Learning with PowerPoint
This book focuses exclusively on the application of PowerPoint to the creation of online training programs. Better than Bullet Points, Creating Engaging e-Learning with PowerPoint fills that gap. By providing in-depth guidance, specific instructions, and helpful exercises, the book will enable training practitioners to create impactful learning interactions in PowerPoint. The author steps readers through the powerful features of this popular desktop application, covering everything from text to art, animation to interactivity. Provided that the reader owns a copy of PowerPoint, this book will immediately put free real-world tools into the hands of those who need it. The information is practical rather than theoretical and immediately applicable. Most importantly, this book will help make e-learning accessible to those who have previously been excluded from taking advantage of the opportunities e-learning can provide. Jane Bozarth is the e-learning coordinator for the North Carolina Office of State Personnel's Human Resource Development Group and has been a training practitioner since 1989. She is a columnist for Training Magazine and has written for numerous publications including Creative Training Techniques Newsletter and the Journal of Educational Technology and Society.
- GenresNonfictionEducation
360 pages, Paperback
First published December 10, 2007
7 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Jane Bozarth
13 books6 followersJane Bozarth, M.Ed., is North Carolina's self-appointed "E-Learning Goddess". While her specialty is in finding ways to cut the high costs of e-learning, Jane is also a popular classroom instructor and motivational speaker. Recent work travels have taken her to Ireland, Canada, and Australia. She enjoys business writing; her book reviews appear monthly in Training Magazine. She has additionally published feature articles in Training, Journal of Educational Technology and Society, Law Enforcement Trainer Magazine, and Creative Training Techniques Newsletter.
Jane's first book, E-Learning Solutions on a Shoestring, was published by Pfeiffer in 2005, and has been followed with Better than Bullet Points: Creating Engaging E-Learning with PowerPoint and From Analysis to Evaluation: Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Trainers. She has also contributed to the 2008 Pfeiffer Annual on Consulting, The ASTD Handbook for Workplace Learning Professionals, The E-Learning Handbook, and The Trainers' Portable Mentor.
Jane and her husband live in Durham, NC, USA with Donald the Answer Dog.
Jane's first book, E-Learning Solutions on a Shoestring, was published by Pfeiffer in 2005, and has been followed with Better than Bullet Points: Creating Engaging E-Learning with PowerPoint and From Analysis to Evaluation: Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Trainers. She has also contributed to the 2008 Pfeiffer Annual on Consulting, The ASTD Handbook for Workplace Learning Professionals, The E-Learning Handbook, and The Trainers' Portable Mentor.
Jane and her husband live in Durham, NC, USA with Donald the Answer Dog.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 26, 2008
Recommended at a library conference I attended. I got some good tips I can use for my online Camtasia tutorials, but it's the kind of book you want to keep as a reference, so I'm going to buy it so other distance ed folks can use it too.
May 31, 2019
I'm an instructor/accidental ID, moving into my first fully ID role. Picked up this book for some tips. I don't know if this just hasn't aged well (revised edition from 6 years ago), if my skills are already beyond this book, or if I just don't like the visual style presented here.
The nutshell version of this book is: use PPT for things it isn't designed to do, and it's ok if everything is ugly. I'd rather use a proper tool and have the visuals not be distractingly poor. It does present a solution (of sorts) for situations where you're the only ID, you only have PPT, and you absolutely must design interactive branching storylines.
Ultimately, I didn't gain anything useful from this book. But it did remind me that I want to learn more about PPT master slides. I've used and created them before, but there's probably some depth I'm missing, so I should look into it more.
The nutshell version of this book is: use PPT for things it isn't designed to do, and it's ok if everything is ugly. I'd rather use a proper tool and have the visuals not be distractingly poor. It does present a solution (of sorts) for situations where you're the only ID, you only have PPT, and you absolutely must design interactive branching storylines.
Ultimately, I didn't gain anything useful from this book. But it did remind me that I want to learn more about PPT master slides. I've used and created them before, but there's probably some depth I'm missing, so I should look into it more.
Read
August 23, 2019An interesting book with lots of great tips of thing you can do with Powerpoint. It shows lots of examples. There is a CD that accompanies the book, but I didn't have it.
April 25, 2021
Despite this one being written using an older version of EXCEL. The author's advice is excellent.
October 11, 2009
This book really stems from Jane Bozarth's earlier work, E-Learning Solutions on a Shoestring Help for the Chronically Underfunded Trainer, in that it builds on the idea that e-learning development can be done cheaply using Powerpoint, a tool most people already have--and one that's more capable than many realize.
The largest flaw in the book is that Powerpoint is not>/i> the best tool for developing some of the more interactive examples she gives--such as word searches, etc. There are some Powerpoint add-ins that facilitate quiz creation, and I recommend their use. The books other failure is its surprisingly poor editing--Shame on you, Wiley! There are many errors in the book's layout, with frequent insertion of incorrect images and/or captions. Go to Bozarth's personal website for corrections to two of the most egregious visual mix-ups.
It provides a pleasant and easy guide to a few very basic e-learning best practices, but doesn't contain much new information for folks with design experience. Bozarth never claims to be a graphic designer, and she certainly isn't. Many of the screenshots and examples are downright ugly.
However, the lack of slickness to many of her examples is largely forgivable: The goal is to deploy simple, internal e-learning solutions--quickly and cheaply. It doesn't matter if the accounting team at your small company has to deal with cheesy clip art as long as the ideas are transferred. Sure, better visual production improves transfer, but by how much? And how much will that additional level of slickness cost in time and money?
In the end, it's a good first book for beginning e-learning designers who need to deploy a project fast and cheap. Once you have it out the door, make sure to follow up with some deeper instructional design books, and shake down your boss for a better assessment tool. Powerpoint will remain a staple for many e-learning builders, but it's just one tool in the box, and there's more to do.
The largest flaw in the book is that Powerpoint is not>/i> the best tool for developing some of the more interactive examples she gives--such as word searches, etc. There are some Powerpoint add-ins that facilitate quiz creation, and I recommend their use. The books other failure is its surprisingly poor editing--Shame on you, Wiley! There are many errors in the book's layout, with frequent insertion of incorrect images and/or captions. Go to Bozarth's personal website for corrections to two of the most egregious visual mix-ups.
It provides a pleasant and easy guide to a few very basic e-learning best practices, but doesn't contain much new information for folks with design experience. Bozarth never claims to be a graphic designer, and she certainly isn't. Many of the screenshots and examples are downright ugly.
However, the lack of slickness to many of her examples is largely forgivable: The goal is to deploy simple, internal e-learning solutions--quickly and cheaply. It doesn't matter if the accounting team at your small company has to deal with cheesy clip art as long as the ideas are transferred. Sure, better visual production improves transfer, but by how much? And how much will that additional level of slickness cost in time and money?
In the end, it's a good first book for beginning e-learning designers who need to deploy a project fast and cheap. Once you have it out the door, make sure to follow up with some deeper instructional design books, and shake down your boss for a better assessment tool. Powerpoint will remain a staple for many e-learning builders, but it's just one tool in the box, and there's more to do.
August 4, 2011
An excellent overview of how to use PowerPoint to create e-learning--even interactive quizzes and the like. Worth looking into before spending big bucks to purchase (and lots of time learning to use) fancier "authoring" software.
July 4, 2009
Perfectly fine for those who are not advanced Power Point users. I don't think I cracked this book for class beyond looking for what might be on quizzes. I wish I hadn't purchased it.
April 13, 2016
This book presents an interesting concept: to use PowerPoint as a poor man's Flash.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews