New Opportunities
Introduce your weekly topics with a video recording from your webcam. Capture a campus or library tour using your smart phone. Record your voice and lecture over your slides. Use a document camera or webcam to record yourself solving a math equation. Insert a video from a guest lecture. Mix these elements together to create engaging online presentations that promote new teaching and learning opportunities. Powerpoint’s slide based platform allows for an iterative and flexible approach to designing and recording more concise focused lectures and presentations for online learners. Content is broken down per slide allowing for a more focused lecture recording. Updates to slide recordings are easier and more manageable compared to traditional video capture and editing. The features and flexibility of Powerpoint combined with the media recording tools and interactivity of Office Mix creates many new opportunities and possibilities for eLearning.
Office Mix Features
- Author directly within Powerpoint
- Record your voice and webcam
- Draw and annotate on Powerpoint slides
- Add interactive exercises, quizzes, polls and web pages
- Record your computer screen
- Publish to the Office Mix website
- View analytics, control privacy and sharing
Examples of Use
- Record narrated lectures
- Demonstrate lab exercises
- Create an instructor introduction
- Share feedback on a class exercise
- Add a conclusion to a weekly lesson
Easy Matters
Office Mix is so easy to use that it sets itself apart from the competition. This ease of use promotes increased adoption as a tool for online teaching faculty. Other comparable tools have steeper learning curves with more options and settings to master. Working in a familiar technology environment like Powerpoint can also help create a sense of comfort and promote learning new skills and adopting new techniques in teaching practices.
Recording Media
You have several options for recording yourself with Office Mix.
- Voice over slides
- Webcam and slides (thumbnail video)
- Webcam (fullscreen video)
- Voice and computer screen
When recording in Office Mix you will view your slides in presentation mode. There are controls for recording your webcam and microphone off to the side. Choose from thumbnail or fullscreen options for recording your webcam and select which devices you would like to use for camera and microphone. Separate controls for your microphone and webcam can allow for the use of a wireless lapel mic in a classroom or studio setting.
Inking Tools
Use the Inking Tools to record your slides similar to Khan Academy. These tools allow instructors to engage with their visual slides by annotating on top of their content and emphasizing important information on screen synchronized with voice narration.
Animations
One of the great features of Powerpoint is the ability to animate text and graphics along motion paths or on and off the screen. Office Mix allows you to trigger these animations using your mouse to introduce content on-screen. This can create more visual stimulation for learners and increase engagement.
Quizzing and Video Apps
The quizzing and polls apps are available from the Office Store for add-ins. You can insert various question types into slides or choose from other third party apps listed in the Office Store. I found the quizzing and polling features to be rather basic and limited in functionality.
Export to MP4 Video
This option creates an MP4 video of your presentation. This can be useful for uploading to streaming video services like Kaltura or YouTube where you can also apply closed captions. MP4 video is widely compatible with mobile devices.
Upload to Office Mix Website
You can also upload your presentations to the Office Mix website making it easy to copy share links or embed code for your presentations. This option will preserve any quizzing, polls and other interactivity in the presentation.
Viewing Analytics
When you upload to the Office Mix website you can access viewing analytics.
My Breakdown
Pros
- Office Mix is free
- Developed and supported by Microsoft
- Accessibility support for Office Mix ranked high in my research
- Easy to learn how to use.
- Medium to full featured compared to other paid for software
Cons
- The quizzes and polls rich text editor feels clunky and constrained and sometimes requires you to reload the widget to reflect changes
- Quizzing features lacked ability to provide feedback
- Longer recordings can take a very long time to process before uploading or exporting to MP4 video
- Office Mix support knowledge base offers a limited number of support articles
- No undo or confirmation when deleting slide recordings
About the Author
Sage Freeman
Media Specialist
Sage Freeman is a Media Specialist working in the eLearning and Academic Technology Department at Chemeketa Community College. He currently serves as a member of the Emergent Technology Work Group within OCCDLA.