I have used Microsoft Word my entire life and there are still so many things I don't know about the program. I believe I've even had a formal training class or two and despite that, I still learned something new with this exercise. During the Microsoft Word Accessibility project, I used Microsoft Word to create a software instruction manual on how to download the free genealogy software called Personal Ancestral File created by FamilySearch.org.
During this project, I encountered a few obstacles. In the past, I have used the themes in Microsoft Word but I do not use them very often so I had to figure out how to best incorporate the themes into my project to make it accessible. I used the FamilySearch logo as a color reference and was pleased with the color theme I chose. I also forgot to use Alt text on all the screen captures so I had to go back and enter those. I'm still trying to learn what is the best way to enter text in the Alt text option.
I was pleased with the way the overall project turned out. I was successful in using Snagit to get my screen captures and I liked how the screen captures integrated into the project as a whole.
This project helped me learn more about how to make Word documents more accessible. Creating accessible documents is important so all people can have access to instruction regardless of their abilities. In the future when creating documents, I plan on utilizing tools like Alt text and Word themes.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
PowerPoint and Instruction
For my PowerPoint Instructional Project, I created an instructional PowerPoint presentation on Dealing with Difficult People. The PowerPoint presentation will be supplemental to classroom instruction when teaching this topic. In the past, I have used PowerPoint in similar ways to give presentations or teach human resource based classes for my job.
While creating my instructional PowerPoint, I encountered several obstacles. Before when I've created PowerPoint presentations, I'd never adhered to the six by six rule and that was a challenge for me to do during this project. I think I tend to make text heavy slides so this was a good thing for me to work on. I resolved this by just being conscious of what I was doing and actually going back and counting how many words and bullet points were on each slide. Another obstacle I encountered was a lack of knowledge about the topic. I decided to create a presentation on Dealing with Difficult People because I knew this would be valuable for me to use at work but I had to do a lot of research to put the presentation together and I still need to do a lot of research before I feel confident in presenting this to the university as staff training. Researching my topic more helped me build the slides in my presentation. One more challenge I encountered was adding ALT Text to the images. It was the first time I'd done this but I was able to do it with some help from our instructor.
Creating the presentation was a success in itself. I created instruction that we needed at work and with a little more research, I'll be able to present it to employees. I enjoyed adding images because as I mentioned before I tend to just have text on my PowerPoints and focus more on instruction delivery but this assignment made me realize that I need to equally focus on how the PowerPoint looks so it isn't distracting for users and is equally accessible at the same time. If there are too many words on the PowerPoint, then people will get lost in the text and not focus on what they are supposed to be learning. It is important to create presentations that optimize instruction so learners experience the best possible outcome and achieve their learning goals.
In the future, I will continue to use PowerPoint to create different training presentations for Human Resources. In doing so, I will make it as accessible as possible by using ALT text on images and following the six by six rule. I also plan on using PowerPoint as a storyboard for when I create online training modules at some point in the future.
While creating my instructional PowerPoint, I encountered several obstacles. Before when I've created PowerPoint presentations, I'd never adhered to the six by six rule and that was a challenge for me to do during this project. I think I tend to make text heavy slides so this was a good thing for me to work on. I resolved this by just being conscious of what I was doing and actually going back and counting how many words and bullet points were on each slide. Another obstacle I encountered was a lack of knowledge about the topic. I decided to create a presentation on Dealing with Difficult People because I knew this would be valuable for me to use at work but I had to do a lot of research to put the presentation together and I still need to do a lot of research before I feel confident in presenting this to the university as staff training. Researching my topic more helped me build the slides in my presentation. One more challenge I encountered was adding ALT Text to the images. It was the first time I'd done this but I was able to do it with some help from our instructor.
Creating the presentation was a success in itself. I created instruction that we needed at work and with a little more research, I'll be able to present it to employees. I enjoyed adding images because as I mentioned before I tend to just have text on my PowerPoints and focus more on instruction delivery but this assignment made me realize that I need to equally focus on how the PowerPoint looks so it isn't distracting for users and is equally accessible at the same time. If there are too many words on the PowerPoint, then people will get lost in the text and not focus on what they are supposed to be learning. It is important to create presentations that optimize instruction so learners experience the best possible outcome and achieve their learning goals.
In the future, I will continue to use PowerPoint to create different training presentations for Human Resources. In doing so, I will make it as accessible as possible by using ALT text on images and following the six by six rule. I also plan on using PowerPoint as a storyboard for when I create online training modules at some point in the future.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
My blogging experience
I started a family blog several years ago to keep up with friends and family and I discovered that I love blogging. I love writing blog entries and I love reading other people's blogs. However, I'm not the type of blogger who puts really personal things on the internet. Currently, I use blogger.com for my family blog although like many people, I don't update it as much as I should. I'm familiar with the blogger format but there's always something new you can learn about blogger and its more advanced features.
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