Presentation Software: Flashlight™ Question Inventory

Revised December 16, 2004

This inventory of questions is designed to help you draft a brief survey that is tailored to your needs. We expect that you will select relatively few of these questions, that you will rewrite at least some of them, and that you may well add questions of your own that focus on what you need to know. If your institution is a TLT/Flashlight subscriber at the Comprehensive or Network levels, you can use the Flashlight Online system which already has all of the questions below pre-stored in a survey that you can quickly modify and administer in your courses. Click here for instructions on how to use Flashlight Online to create your survey in minutes!

Most of these questions are framed in a positive way (e.g., Agree/disagree: "The total amount of text is satisfactory") but you may find you get more pointed, useful feedback if you signal to students that criticism is welcome by using or devising questions about potential problems (e.g., Agree/disagree: " There is so much text on the slides that it is hard to read them.")

How to use these questions, and create your own: Here, in outline, is what an instructor might do to use these questions, and others that he or she might invent, to improve presentations:

a) Consider your own presentation, and your approach to presentation. What might work especially well or poorly in your presentations for at least a few students (For example, print is too small; the images really helped me visualize what you were talking about; the presentation went so fast I couldn’t keep up with what you were saying)

b) Of those possibilities, eliminate that those you can't or wouldn't change, no matter what the learners say

c) Turn the most important of the surviving possibilities into questions for your survey (feedback form). There are lots of guidelines for writing good survey questions. Here are several of the most important:

Use relatively unambiguous language

Ask only one question at a time. (Example of asking several questions at a time: “When my lectures go too slowly for you, is it because I’m repeating what was in the reading?” (Question 1: did my lectures go too slowly? Question 2: did you do the reading; Question 3. was there a relation between what you learned from the reading and how you experienced my lectures?)

The question shouldn’t suggest the answer you want.

Only ask questions where you know that, no matter what people say, you can use their answers.

d) Ask the learners your questions

e) Act on what they tell you – some of their answers may influence you to change something about your presentations; others may convince you to keep doing what you’re doing.

f) Tell them what you've done as a result of their advice (which should help convince them to respond even more thoughtfully the next time you ask for feedback)

g) If, in the process, you discover something of general interest (e.g., the tool you've used really works; insight from the data), share with other instructors ("scholarship of teaching")

Rights to use and modify these materials: Copyright to this document belongs to the TLT Group (2001, 2004). If your institution or project has a TLT Group subscription (click here to see a list of subscribing institutions), we grant you permission to modify it as you like and to create your own link to this site. If your Web site has password protection so it is only accessible to members of your community, you can post a copy there, but don’t forget to check back here – we may update this material from time to time. We do NOT grant permission for you to publish these questions (copy them to a publicly accessible Web site or print any or all of them in a book, for example).

The page was created using Microsoft Word™. You can use the "save as" command to save it to your own machine, edit it (deleting the questions you don't want to use, rewriting others, adding your own), and use it.

Key

Questions in black text are appropriate for general use

Questions in green text are modifiable for specific use.

Questions in maroon are versions of questions in the current Flashlight CSI. If you are interested in using more questions such as these, we suggest you check whether your institution has site licensed the CSI or can use Flashlight Online.

Presentation Software: Flashlight™ Question Inventory

Section I: Functional Use

Text & Clarity

Please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the following statements.

1=(strongly disagree) to 5= (strongly agree);

or no basis for opinion.

Neither Agree or Disagree

No basis for Opinion

The total amount of text on a slide is satisfactory

There is so much text on the slides that it is hard to read them.

Long passages of text (3 lines or more) on the slides are easy to read

Slide headings help in note taking

Headings are clearer when they are accompanied by images

Headings used alone are understandable

Slide headings are clearly related to slide content

The text on the screen is large enough to read

Slide headings and text are sufficient for understanding

Images, Motion & Animations

The images on the screen are clear and identifiable

Because you use images to illustrate steps of a process, I understand these processes better

Because you use figures from the text in your slides it is easier for me to reference and review material later

I would understand the lecture better if you showed additional images relevant to course content

Images add interest to the material

Images help me understand concepts

The images you used to illustrate [x} were confusing

Images help me focus my attention

The use of animations helps me understand complex processes in particular

Motion helps me understand concepts

Motion adds interest to the material

Motion helps to focus my attention

The use of motion is confusing

Speed

The pace of slides holds my interest

You spend an appropriate amount of time talking about the content of each slide

The pace allows me to take complete notes

The slides often advance too quickly.

Lighting

The lighting in the classroom is bright enough to keep me awake

The lighting in the classroom is bright enough for note taking

The lighting in the classroom is so bright that I have trouble seeing the slides clearly from where I sit

Sound

The use of sound with the slides provided a useful demonstrations of what I might encounter in actual situations

Audio narrations for the slides made it easier for me to review.